Paulie Malignaggi is proud to be from Brooklyn and happy to headlining tomorrow night at the Barclays Center against Adrien Broner.
Malignaggi will defend his WBA welterweight title against the unbeaten and highly favored Broner. But the champ isn’t happy with his ticket allotment.
“I was only given two sections on the floor and I got rid of those right away,” Malignaggi said. “My people are still calling me. I don’t know who they gave the rest of the tickets to. It’s something I’d like to address, but I’m not going to bother with it. I just know I have a lot of unhappy people calling because they couldn’t get their hands on floor seats. I ran out right away.”
Malignaggi figured that being the defending champion and a Brooklyn native who learned his craft at Gleason’s Gym in his home borough would warrant a bigger ticket allotment.
“It’s insulting to me,’’ Malignaggi said. “It’s my house and you’re basically preventing me from showing the star power I can have. I could probably sell out the whole floor.”
Some might say Broner, who is from Cincinnati, is the featured attraction given his rising status in the pound-for-pound rankings. Broner is 26-0 with 22 knockouts, but Malignaggi views him as a coddled fighter who hasn’t faced anyone with the type of experience or resume Malignaggi has.
The two squared off at a press conference yesterday and continued their series of insults and threats to do bodily harm to each other.
“I think it’s good I’m catching him now because someone else that was real could have caught him and beat him and taken away a good opportunity for me,” Malignaggi said. “I’m glad I can be the first real fighter to catch him and welcome him to big-time boxing because he hasn’t been there yet.”