Paulie Malignaggi announced his retirement last month after his loss to Sam Eggington in London. Malignaggi has a great career and very few fighters have been more creative with their fight night looks than the Magic Man – lets take a look back.



Paulie started his career in July 2001 with a win over Thaddeus Parker in Brooklyn and followed that up three weeks later with a stoppage win against Robert Sowers in New York City:

He had an Italian-flag themed trunks with PAULIE in red across the white waistband, black and gold gloves. Fascinating bowl cut on Paulie, by the way.



By the time he fought Sterling Gethers in Miami, Oklahoma in April 2002, he had a more typical magic-man haircut, along with black trunks with PAULIE in Italian-flag colors.



He added green gloves and black and white shoes with white tassels.



In Paulie’s 9th fight, he took on Jadschi Green in Chester, West Virginia in the summer of 2002:

Paulie continued with an Italian-flag theme, but again incorporated it in a different iteration - here with horizontal stripes and a white waistband. Paulie’s footwear appears to be the same, and this time with red gloves (couldn’t tell the make). Also worth noting that Paulie had HAVOC along the back waistband in all of these early fights.



Paulie broke out shin length gladiator trunks versus Chad Lawshe in New York in October 2002:



Paulie, sporting a black and red ensemble, versus Shad Howard in Uncasville Connecticut in June of 2003:

Two months later, Paulie recorded one of his 8 career stoppages against Kevin Watts in New Hampshire:

Paulie styled a new iteration of Italian-flag-themed trunks, this one with additional touches of fringe and a New York Yankees logo on the left front thigh. He wore white footwear and red Everlast gloves.



Against 16-1 Jeremy Yelton in New York, Paulie (now a 19-0 prospect) sported a black and gold look, along with black Winning brand boxing gloves (one of the few times he did not wear Everlast).



Look at those frosted tips. Yelton, meanwhile, never recovered from the loss, going 1-14 through the remainder of his career.



Malignaggi returned to more typical colors and brands in his next fight, showing off Italian-themed gladiator trunks with red Everlast gloves in a near shut-out decision win over Donald Camarena in Mashuntucket Connecticut:

A pivotal moment in Paulie’s career came next, in June 2006 in Madison Square Garden. Undefeated at 21-0, Malignaggi took on 26-0 Miguel Cotto for the WBO super lightweight title. Paulie wore white and blue gladiator trunks with yellow stars, PAULIE across the front and EVERLAST across the back.



Paulie’s gloves were blue and red Everlasts:

The decision loss was really a win for Paulie: he proved that he belonged at the championship level, and proved his toughness by getting off of the canvas in the 2nd round and fighting through a broken jaw (as can be seen in the photo immediately above).



After taking the rest of 2006 off, Paulie returned in February 2007 against Edner Cherry in New York. There was a distinct “blue” theme, including Paulie’s hair:

Malignaggi wore the same Everlast gloves as the Cotto fight, along with royal blue and white gladiator trunks and blue & white footwear with white tassels. Nice touch with the Italia socks as well.



In June of 2007, Malignaggi decisioned Lovemore Ndou in Uncasville Connecticut to win his first world championship. Paulie’s hair was dyed gold to match his black-sequin and gold trunks.



Paulie successfully defended his title against Herman Ngoudjo in Atlantic City in January 2008:



He kept a black-sequin look but shelved the gladiator trunks. Notably, he worked “Magic Man” in script across the front of the trunks as well as a “LRG Team Malignaggi” patch on the left front thigh.



Lovemore Ndou was granted a rematch in London which saw Paulie’s first real wardrobe malfunction.

Paulie’s ill-advised braids came unclasped and kept getting in his face:

After athletic tape failed to secure them, his corner wound up cutting off his hair mid-way through the fight - perhaps the only time a fighter has received a haircut mid-bout:

Lou Dibella remarkd: “I love Paulie, but sometimes he’s an idiot.” Malignaggi escaped with a split decision, which set up a showdown with Ricky Hatton in November 2008, in Las Vegas.



Paulie clearly learned his lesson on the hairlength, instead going with some sort of maze shaved into his short hair. He wore a dark blue and white gladiator trunk set with RIP RONNEY (in honor of Ronney Vargas) across the front and a ring magazine patch on the front right thigh. His shoes were white adidas with black tassels. His lighter blue Everlast gloves really didn’t match the rest of his look. He lost by a stoppage (which he objected to, as seen below).



Paulie rebounded in April 2009 in Mashantucket Connecticut against Christopher Fernandez. He sported an Everlast black and white gladiator look, black Everlast gloves and black and white footwear with white tassels.



Four months later he lost a controversial decision to Juan Diaz in Houston Texas. Paulie went crazy in his two fights against DIaz… for #1, the somber “RIP ARTURO” across the white waistband was a stark contrast to the off-duty Vegas showgirls party going on beneath that:

Metallic purple HAVOC trunks, high purple socks and remarkably long black and white fringe. I mean look at this fringe:

The rematch in Chicago saw Malignaggi in a red/white/neon-green ensemble:

Red asics shoes, high neon-green socks, white Everlast trunks with neon green fringe on the bottom and along the waistband, red waistand with PAULIE in a white frame, matching red Everlast gloves. Quite a look.



After avenging his loss, Malignaggi took on Amir Khan at Madison Square Garden.



Leopard print trunks (and the first reference to Future Legend, Paulie’s clothing line) long black fringe and PAULIE in large gold letters along the waistband - decent look actually. Some nice gold Everlast gloves as well:

After losing to Khan by 11th round stoppage, Paulie took 7 months off before moving to welterweight and getting back into the win column against Michael Lozada in Quebec City, Canada. Along with a silly little pony-tail, Malignaggi showed off white trunks with fringe and green and red horizontal stripes across the front. He had PAULIE across the red waistband and MAGIC MAN across the back of his trunks.



In April 2011, Paulie beat Jose Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas in a black and gold gladiator set:

He completed the look with black and gold asics and red Everlast gloves.



Six months later he decisioned Orlando Lora in Los Angeles in trunks just slightly different than those he wore against Lozada the previous year:

Paulie was brought to the Ukraine in April 2012, in what was supposed to be the coming out party for Vyacheslav Senchenko. Instead Paulie upset Senchenko to win a world title at welterweight.



Really liked this set - ordinarily not a huge fan of the high socks, but as they’re black they don’t distract from, and perhaps even complement, the rest of the look: Clean red and black gladiator trunks with white trim - a couple of adds but not over the top - and matching red Everlast gloves.

Now the welterweight champion, Paulie took on Pablo Caesar Cano in Brooklyn in October 2012. Paulie goes crazy with the fringe here:

Trunks are too long, too much fringe, tassels on the shoes. just too much going on. The bergamasco shepherd is the official dog of this look.

Paulie followed up this split decision win with a split decision loss against Adrien Broner.



A white and black Flintsones look for Paulie here, right down to the PAULIE font. Malignaggi added a tribute to the recently passed Hector Macho Camacho across the front, and for extra bonus died his mohawk bright red. It sort of matches his red Everlast gloves so i give the hair dye a bonus point.



Malignaggi bounced back against Zab Judah in an uneventful UD in December of 2013:

Notable is that this is the only time that Paulie used his last name on the front waistband of his trunks. A little too much thigh for my tastes, but otherwise an ok set.

Paulie had a rough night against Shawn Porter in Washington DC, losing by 4th round stoppage. Paulie had an interesting black, gold and green fringe look that was a bit busy:

This fight marks the second time in a row that “PAULIE” is absent from his waistband.



In August 2015, Malignaggi returned to Brooklyn to fight Danny Garcia.



Paulie repeated the Corona sponsorship on the waistband, and otherwise went with a black-purple-neon green look. One very nice touch is the different gloss on the leather side panels. Magic Man was on the right front thigh and the logo for Future Legend was prominently displayed on both the front and back left thigh:

This is also the ninth fight in a row that Paulie fought with standard red Everlast gloves.



Coming off of two consecutive losses, Paulie returned to action two months later in Milan, Italy against Laszlo Fazekas.



Malignaggi beat Fazekas easily, and had a fairly muted look. He kept the same basic template as the Garcia fight, replacing the Future Legend logo with an Italian flag themed HAVOC logo, and he tossed in an Italian flag on the upper right thigh as well. Red Leone brand boxing gloves and red footwear round out the look.

After repeating this look in a win against Antonio Moscatiello in London, Paulie returned to the Brooklyn in July 2016 against Gabriel Bracero.



This is the template from his previous two fights, with the Italian flag moved down to the bottom right thigh, and several layers of added fringe. He also replaced red footwear with white, and LEONE gloves with his typical Everlasts.



Having won three fights in a row, Malignaggi fought his final fight in London against Sam Eggington in March 2017.



Albeit a loss, Paulie went out in style. An atypical gladiator cut in an Italian flag theme, white shoes with red and green trim and red gloves is a pretty nice look. Worth noting that Malignaggi wore Cleto Reyes gloves in his final fight - as far as I could tell the only time he’d done so in his professional career. The green portion of his trunks included his Future Legend lettering, and notably his white waistband read “PAOLO”.



Respect box.

