Richard Schaefer, the CEO for Golden Boy Promotions, confirmed today he has been contacted by HBO about a rematch between Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi and Juan Diaz, and New York is the preferred location. Diaz won a controversial decision over Malignaggi last month in Diaz’s hometown of Houston, Texas.
Most observers saw a close bout, but judge Gale Van Hoy of Texas scored the fight 118-110 for Diaz, the hometown fighter. Judge Raul Caiz of California had it 115-113 and Judge David Southerland from Oklahoma saw it 116-112, all for Diaz. The Post scored the bout 115-113 for Malignaggi, who had predicted he would be robbed of a decision in Texas and has campaigned for a rematch in New York.
“I did get a call from Kery Davis who indicated they would love to do the rematch on HBO,” Schaefer said. “They will get back to me about a date and the money, but they would like to do it in New York.”
Golden Boy promotes Diaz, and while Schaefer said he’d like to see the rematch, he has to get approval from Diaz’s manager Willie Savannah, who is known as a tough negotiator.
“People don’t have a problem with Diaz winning the fight,” Schaefer said. “It could have gone Malignaggi’s way. It could have gone Diaz’s way. It could have been a draw. But I think the outrage is about the scorecard from the Texas judge who had it 118-110. I think that got everybody fired up. I think Paulie came to fight. I think he gave a great performance and I do believe Paulie deserves a rematch and I will do whatever I can to see if we can get that rematch done.”
Schaefer said unbeaten Brooklyn middleweight Danny Jacobs “would be perfect on a card like that.” Jacobs (18-0, 15 KOs) is a Golden Boy fighter.
Malignaggi’s promoter Lou DiBella has also been lobbying for a rematch in New York. “I’ve been around a long time and I’ve never been involved in a situation like this that demanded a rematch,” DiBella said. “There are some fights that are razor close, but the overwhelming time there is a consensus of who won. Everybody knew this fight was close. Then you have these outrageous scorecards.
“Here you have a kid who said, ‘I’m going to fight my best fight. I’m going to win and this (judge) and this (judge) are going to deprive me.’ And no one from myself to the regulators to Golden Boy was able to protect this kid. We watched as whatever he said was going to happen, happened. But the rematch will be even bigger because this fight resonated with people.”
DiBella said if Jacobs is added to the card, he’ll put another marquee fighter like junior middleweight Sergio Martinez (44-1-1, 24 KOs) of Spain in a featured billing to make it a quality triple-header from the Garden. “I think we could have a really big event,” DiBella said.
Stay tuned.
