DiBella Doesn't Deserve Malignaggi's Ire

The news this week that former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi signed with Golden Boy did not come as a surprise to me. After all, I had written of its likelihood two weeks ago, and a couple of days later spoke to Malignaggi about it when we were in Los Angeles -- where he was meeting with company officials -- for the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora fight.
What did surprise me was Malignaggi's uncalled for attack on his former promoter, Lou DiBella, following the signing.
Now I've known Malignaggi since before he turned pro in 2001. I've interviewed him countless times. I've always enjoyed being around him. He's met my wife. I like him. A lot. But I think he's dead wrong for attacking DiBella. Malignaggi was petty and ungrateful in his condemnation of DiBella's 10 years of guiding his career.
When I spoke to Malignaggi after he signed with Golden Boy, he took a page out of Floyd Mayweather's playbook, referring to the deal he had with DiBella as a "slave contract." (I am a firm believer that promoters are entitled to make money too, though a lot of fighters seem to forget that.)
Malignaggi complained about DiBella's 25 percent revenue split in their contract (Malignaggi's new deal gives Golden Boy 20 percent), even though DiBella swears he didn't turn a profit with Malignaggi until about seven years into the deal. Malignaggi also complained about having to pay DiBella $75,000 -- a reasonable price considering how much time was left -- to buy his way out of the contract after his lopsided loss to Amir Khan in May.
Malignaggi further trashed DiBella, saying things like, "Lou never promoted me the right way" and "He should be grateful to me for the money he made by leeching off me for all those years."
Malignaggi claimed that when he won a 140-pound title against Lovemore N'Dou in 2007 that "nobody even knew I was fighting for a title because Lou didn't promote the fight like it should have been promoted."
Malignaggi railed against DiBella for not protecting him in a 2006 fight with Miguel Cotto because of the small size of the ring and the early weigh-in time, as well as for not getting neutral officials for his first fight with Juan Diaz in Houston in 2007.
I got the feeling that if he could have, Malignaggi would have blamed DiBella for bad weather and the poor economy.
It got to the point that I stopped taking notes about his complaints. Now, DiBella is a big boy and doesn't need to be defended, but I was appalled by Malignaggi's skewed view of reality.
My belief is that DiBella did a Hall of Fame job for Malignaggi against all odds. DiBella took a guy from day one of his pro career -- who had zero punching power and a style that didn't make for scintillating television -- and brought him not only to a world title, but to numerous premium cable appearances with purses that grossed at least a few million dollars.
He fought on HBO six times, defended his title on Showtime's top series and also had appearances on Showtime's "ShoBox."
Much of it was because of DiBella. After Malignaggi lost to Cotto, quite brutally, DiBella got HBO to buy Malignaggi in a "Boxing After Dark" main event against Edner Cherry in his next fight. That was impressive.
After Malignaggi won his title against N'Dou on HBO and the network had no interest in his first defense against Herman Ngoudjo, DiBella convinced Showtime to buy the fight. After that, DiBella got Malignaggi the biggest fight of his life against then-champ Ricky Hatton. It wasn't DiBella's fault Malignaggi was outclassed and stopped in the 11th round. At least Malignaggi didn't blame DiBella for the loss. He blamed trainer Buddy McGirt, who he fired and then dumped all over in the aftermath. In recent years Malignaggi has also shed other members of his team, including trainers, advisers and lawyers, when he hasn't liked what they've had to say.
After Malignaggi's controversial loss to Diaz, it was DiBella who willed the rematch to happen. He called media members to campaign for the rematch and basically camped out in Kery Davis' HBO office to convince him to buy the sequel. That led to the title shot against Khan, a fight in which Malignaggi was again outclassed.
When told about Malignaggi's disparaging comments, DiBella was disappointed because, even after all these years in the business, he still falls in love with fighters. He should know better, but he can't help himself.
In a shocker, DiBella, who can be one of the volcanic personalities on the planet at times, didn't bother to go off on Malignaggi. Instead he said, several times, that he had thought of, and treated, Malignaggi "as a member of my family, that's how much I loved the kid."
His voice trailed off.



http://espn.go.com/sports/boxing/blog/_/name/rafael_dan/id/5633162/dibella-deserve-malignaggi-ire

 

Sorry I meant to post this in the main section.