Italian American boxer Paulie Malignaggi

Mark Worden (Standard British accent):

The June issue of Speak Up features an interview with the Italian American boxer Paulie Malignaggi. In this out-take we asked him to explain the origin of his nickname; “The Magic Man”:

Paulie Malignaggi (New York accent):

The nickname The Magic Man comes from earlier in my career, after a couple of professional fights I had, and my promoter,  Lou DiBella, was saying, “We need to come up with a nickname for you,” and I said, “Yeah, I think we gotta come up with something correct, something that really matches me.” And then he just gave it to me, he announced me at a press conference, he was announcing the fact that he had just signed me, and he said: “This is my new signing, this kid is going to be a star, this kid is going to be a champion: Paulie ‘The Magic Man’ Malignaggi.” And, from then on, the nickname just stuck: “Magic Man.” Basically, it comes from me being very tricky, very flashy, a lot of artistic way (sic) of fighting that I have. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, so to speak. I don’t fight very conventional. I fight a lot of times with my hands down, I fight… I’ll do a lot of taunting, I’ll try to put on a show as much as I can. I wear some crazy outfits when I fight. So I try to put on a show as much as I can. So I guess the nickname “Magic Man” would not just make me a fighter, but a performer in general, and that’s, I guess, where it comes from.

(Paulie Malignaggi was talking to Lorenza Cerbini)    

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