David Feldman confirms Paulie Malignaggi won’t fight in BKFC again

Former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi made his way into the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) ring earlier this year. There, he took on former UFC fighter, Artem Lobov in the main event of BKFC 6.

The fight was set to end the rivalry between the two. The two camps have not gotten along since the Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather fight, when Malignaggi briefly worked as one of the Irishman’s training partners.

Yet, the scrap did not solve anything as both Paulie Malignaggi and Artem Lobov were hesitant to throw strikes and many fans were left disappointed by it. Now, months later, David Feldman, the president of BKFC, confirms the former boxing world champion Malignaggi won’t fight sans gloves again.

“No, I think had that fight been more action-packed it would be something we would re-visit,” Feldman said to BJPENN.com about having Paulie Malignaggi rematch Artem Lobov. “But not right now, it doesn’t make sense. In all honesty, Paulie is a great guy and a great boxer but this isn’t the sport for him. So, I don’t think he fights for us again.”

Although he doesn’t believe Paulie Malignaggi will fight for his promotion again, the two still communicate with each other. He recently said he believes bare-knuckle is less stress on the body than regular boxing.

“I spoke to Paulie and he was bitter about the loss, but he told me, it is definitely safer. He said he did a sparring session in boxing and was sore head to toe while he wasn’t sore in after his fight against Artem the next day at all.”

Regardless, Malignaggi won’t have the chance to do that again, at least in BKFC. Whether or not he has any desire to fight in any promotion or fight again at all is unknown.

Do you think we’ll ever see Paulie Malignaggi fight again?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/18/2019.