Paul Malignaggi’s Trainer Eric Brown: “Broner Is An Idiot”

Paul Malignaggi’s trainer Eric Brown pronounced himself “very confident” that Paulie, an 11-to-1 underdog, even though he holds the WBA welter crown and foe Adrien Broner is coming up from 135, will prevail on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Brown, during a Friday workout at Fight Factory in Gravesend, Brooklyn, said his fighter’s attitude and work ethic this camp has been outstanding. I got the sense that the trainer, too, is extra jazzed for this assignment. It seems like he doesn’t care for Broner much, and thinks the Cinci boxer has gotten too much of a promotional push, more than his resume indicates he deserves.

I looked deep into Brown’s eyes, to see if I could pick up on a flicker of prevarication, when I asked Brown’s degree of certainty that his kid would have his hand raised on Saturday, in a fight which will run on Showtime. “Very high,” the tutor said. “The only way I see the other guy winning is if the judges rob Paulie.”

Brown said Malignaggi is more engaged this camp than his last, when he readied himself for Pablo Cano. “He’s on a bigger mission than to beat Cano,” he said.

Of Broner, Brown didn’t tiptoe. “He’s an idiot,” he said. “He’s ignorant, a wannabe Floyd Mayweather but he can’t be Mayweather. I didn’t like him to start and I’ve grown to dislike him even more. I’ve always felt he was overrated.”

Brown scoffed at the people Broner has beaten to get to 26-0. Foe were undersized, or just came to collect a check, he maintains. “Broner has fought a bunch of underpowered midgets,” Brown said.

It’s not just fighters who get an extra boost from a matchup against a super skilled and occasionally abrasive foe, huh?