Paulie Malignaggi has sensationally overlooked Terence Crawford and Floyd Mayweather when naming the greatest welterweight in boxing history.
Mayweather established himself as one of the greatest fighters to have ever laced up a pair of gloves during his career, capturing a version of the world welterweight championship on a number of occasions along the way before his retirement from the sport in 2017.
As for Crawford, the Omaha-native became the first undisputed world welterweight champion of the ‘four belt era’ back in July 2023 when he dismantled Errol Spence Jr in the ninth round of their historic showdown in Las Vegas.
Neither of those men came to mind for fellow former welterweight world champion Malignaggi though whilst talking to Pro Box TV, as he spoke fondly of Thomas Hearns, stating that ‘nobody’ in boxing history would have defeated the Hall of Famer at welterweight, including Mayweather and Crawford.
“It’s hard for me to see anybody beating Hearns in history at welterweight honestly, and literally anybody. I mean if you look at Ray Leonard, he lost more rounds than he won against Hearns in two fights. In both fights he was behind in the first fight and in the second fight they robbed Hearns and they made it a draw even though that was at a higher weight than welterweight.”
Hearns became the first fighter to win world titles in five separate divisions when he defeated WBC light-heavyweight champion Dennis Andries back in 1987.
‘The Hitman’ was a member of ‘The Four Kings’ during the peak of his accomplished career alongside former rivals Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran, sharing the ring with each of this legendary trio on at least one occasion before his career came to an end.
