Retired two-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi has shared his verdict on the controversial match-up between Gervonta Davis and Jake Paul.
Reigning WBA lightweight champion ‘Tank’ Davis is set to make his return to the ring against the YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul in a scheduled ten round exhibition clash at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Friday November 14.
Davis has not fought since the beginning of the year when his WBA world title defence against countryman Lamont Roach Jr was declared a majority decision draw, although some believe ‘The Reaper’ had done enough to dethrone the three-weight world champion.
As for Paul, the 28-year-old from Ohio competed in his last bout back in June when he defeated former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr via unanimous decision at the conclusion of their cruiserweight clash in Anaheim.
With the clash between Davis and Paul quickly approaching, a number of boxing figures have offered their thoughts on the battle, and now Malignaggi is the latest to do so.
Speaking on Froch On Fighting, Malignaggi shared his thoughts on the controversial match-up, which he brandishes as a ‘circus’.
“I don’t think people are talking about this enough, the fact that it’s not a real fight it’s an exhibition… People talk about Jake setting up his fights. I personally don’t think Jake sets up his fights, I think they’re sanctioned fights and you’re risking a federal crime if you set up sanctioned fights, so I just think he’s fighting opponents that are not with it anymore or are too small.
“This is not a sanctioned fight, this is an exhibition, and an exhibition means you cannot bet on it, you cannot bet on the result. If you remember this is why they changed the Mike Tyson fight from an exhibition to a real fight, because they realised an exhibition you could stage it and they couldn’t take bets on it.
“I think this could be all kinds of crazy wacky stuff, this is a bit of a circus in my opinion.”
He was then asked to share his thoughts on what he believes the outcome will be.
“If they don’t stage it and don’t set up a sort of mild sparring session, Davis has a chance depending on the size of the gloves, because here’s the thing – Jake is probably 100lbs bigger than the guy, that’s a lot of weight…
“If you make the gloves small, Gervonta could technically hurt Jake even if he hits him, but the problem is the gloves are small. Jake could also hurt Gervonta because Gervonta is so much smaller than him.”
It was announced at a press conference last month that there would be a maximum weight limit of 195lbs for both fighters, who are also required to wear 12oz gloves when they step into the ring on fight night.
