Quotes from Paulie Malignaggi

My father took my mother, me, and my brother from Sicily to New York. He got us one-way tickets but booked himself a return flight. He dumped us with my mother's parents, who had just arrived from Italy, and abandoned us. That was 1986. I didn't see or speak to him for another 12 years. That's cruel.

Every year, you hope that boxing can provide some of the best fights possible. I think 2018 was one of the better years for boxing. A lot of good matchups were made, and a lot of tickets were sold.

My whole life, nothing was handed to me. I had to go out in the world and get it.

People view you differently when you're a world champion.

You get the reality checks during the course of your adult life and your career, and you realize that as good as the money in boxing is, most of the time people most don't make Ray Leonard or Oscar De La Hoya money, even if you make very good money.

It's always been a dream of mine to fight for the European title.

I am a welterweight, so do I want to fight Mayweather or Pacquiao? To be honest, it has not entered my head.

I thought I would make so much money and be the next Ray Leonard. Maybe it was farfetched, but I thought I could be a megastar. I could fight, and I had a lot of crossover appeal that was necessary to promote myself. I thought I'd make a ton of money and live off of it the rest of my life.

I'm not a complete idiot that just accuses people of something without having my reasons to believe what it is I'm saying.

I'm not complaining. I've made a very good living from boxing, better than any living I possibly could have done. Having said that, you don't live the rest of your life off the money you make in boxing. You still have to create positive forms of income.

It is tougher to control range on a guy who is as tall, lengthy, and busy as Amir Khan, who has a very good jab.

Dealing with my first pro loss was the toughest adversity of my career.

Money can make money if you're intelligent about it and don't waste it the wrong way.

Sometimes, when it comes to multiple-weight world champions, they have so much skill that it eliminates the excitement out of the fights.

They call me the Magic Man because I'm a classy fighter, a master of my craft, a good-looking Italian kid from Brooklyn who came through a dark and gritty life to find something magical.

I'm proud of my Italian roots, and I've always believed that I would get the chance to fight for the belt.

I know a lot of people want to see me fight in Italy.

I'm a boxer by nature, so, obviously, the jab is always key - but it is nice to know you've got a right hand behind it.

Sometimes when you get older, you need to tone down the trash talking, and sometimes you need younger fighters to bring it out of you.

Kevin Johnson is the kind of guy that gives guys trouble. He gives a lot of guys trouble. He gave Vitali Klitschko trouble.

We both do a lot of similar things with speed and boxing ability, but I think I've got some tricks up my sleeve for Zab. Zab will probably tell you he's got some tricks up his sleeve for me.

American fight fans are in tune to Joshua because they know what he's done, especially to Klitschko, and there is nothing not to like about him.

Once you come to America, you're fighting top fighters. They're not going to let you get away with the guys you're fighting in England: you're going to have to fight constant monsters.

UFC has unbelievable fans, and boxing has unbelievable fans.