Paulie Malignaggi Sees Keith Thurman Beating Danny Garcia

Former world champion Paulie Malignaggi is not one to shy away from talking about a big fight and he believes Keith Thurman will beat Danny Garcia in their upcoming welterweight world title unification bout next March.

Malignaggi spoke to Fight Hub TV and said Thurman has the advantage over Garcia in terms of fighting in their natural weight. Thurman has fought at welterweight throughout almost the entirety of his professional career while Garcia recently moved up from light welterweight to welterweight.

“You start to favor Thurman a little bit,” Malignaggi said. “I favor Thurman a little bit. He’s more of a natural welterweight, but you can’t write off Danny Garcia. He’s been in this position before as an underdog and he’ upset the odds. When you want to write off Danny Garcia, you need to think twice about it. This guy was a big underdog in these other big fights and he came back and won. When you first look at his fighting style, you think ‘Thurman can hack it.’ I think Thurman has earned the right to be favored in this fight. The natural welterweight will always have that advantage to a degree.”

Malignaggi is speaking from experience as he has fought Garcia back in 2015. Garcia stopped Malignaggi in the 9th round of their encounter in Garcia’s first fight as a welterweight.

Thurman and Garcia are fighting for Thurman’s WBA and Garcia’s WBC welterweight titles on March 4. Malignaggi’s comments can be seen in the video above.