Paulie Malignaggi has hired Angel "Memo" Heredia, a controversial strength and conditioning coach, to assist him in cutting weight for his August 1 fight vs. Danny "Swift" Garcia.
Heredia was involved with the infamous company BALCO, which had numerous famous clients in professional sports, the most famous being famed MLB slugger Barry Bonds, who notoriously broke the all-time home run record, and holds the single-season home run record (73). He has admitted to creating doping regimens to fool advanced tests, but has claimed to be only using legal methods currently.
Malignaggi, a vocal opponent of drug use in boxing, said that he is interested in Heredia's expertise in cutting weight and has volunteered for random drug testing even as he works with him.
"I hired Memo because he's an intelligent guy. I'm having trouble with my weight. As I get older I don't retain as much energy when I make weight as I used to when I was younger," Malignaggi said. Heredia is a former chemist and science professor.
Malignaggi maintained that hiring Heredia does not make him a hypocrite as it relates to his past and continued criticism of Manny Pacquiao, and he also stood by his guns when it comes to accusing Pacquiao of juicing in the past.
"I'm not a hypocrite. I think the hypocrisy of those kind of people shows pretty blatantly when you're defending a guy who ducked, juked, and jived random drug testing to the point where he avoided the biggest fight that could have been made in boxing," Malignaggi said.
"And when he was finally random drug tested, he was part of the biggest joke in boxing, which was the one-sided affair that he fought against Floyd Mayweather, which proved that when you random drug test the guy he wasn't such a good fighter after all.
"It only proved my opinion to me and strengthened my opinion of him to me. I don't push my opinion on anyone. People ask me about him and I give my honest opinion."
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