Paulie Malignaggi can relate to Danny Garcia's weighty decision

PAULIE MALIGNAGGI understands the move Danny Garcia is making.

With nothing left to prove at the light welterweight division, and with making weight becoming an issue, Malignaggi jumped up to welterweight (147 pounds) in 2010 at the age of 30.

Known as a soft puncher, the former IBF light welterweight champion won the WBA title in just his fourth welterweight fight, a technical knockout over previously undefeated Vyacheslav Senchenko.

Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) lost the title just over a year later, dropping a split decision to Adrien Broner. And, after a brutal knockout suffered against Shawn Porter last April, Malignaggi said he almost left boxing altogether.

Malignaggi, 34, was scheduled to fight Danny O'Connor on May 29, but suffered a cut while training and had to pull out. He will return to the ring on Aug. 1 against Garcia, a Juniata Park native, in a scheduled 12-round welterweight bout at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Malignaggi said the 27-year-old Garcia is wise to make the jump in weight class at an earlier age that he did.

"His body is going into the division a little sooner than my body went into the division," Malignaggi said during a conference call yesterday.

Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs), who was forced to vacate his WBC light welterweight title earlier this month, has struggled in recent fights at catchweights between 140 and 147 pounds. The choice of Malignaggi as his first welterweight opponent seems like a wise move as Malignaggi is older and lacks punching power.

Perhaps trying to ease into the weight class?

"I didn't go up to welterweight and say, 'I want to fight Paulie because he's not a big puncher,' " Garcia said. "I don't choose my opponents, [manager] Al Haymon chooses the opponents. Fights aren't won on power, they're won on skill."

Although Malignaggi, a Brooklyn native, lacks power, he's a highly-skilled fighter. Garcia has struggled against similar fighter, including Lamont Peterson, Mauricio Herrera and Lucas Matthysse. But part of those struggles can be attributed, Garcia said, to being weaker at 140 pounds.

In his controversial April win over Peterson, Garcia faded late and nearly lost, squeaking out a majority decision.

"For the first time in a long time, I can worry about training to get better and not training to lose weight," Garcia said. "I've been fighting at 140 my whole career and I just feel like losing the weight was affecting my performances, mostly in the later rounds of big fights because I would use a lot of my energy losing weight. I'm going to feel a lot better and a lot stronger at 147.

"We added things to our workout now. We added a lot of explosive workouts, a lot of agility, a lot of footwork - things I couldn't do at 140 because I didn't have the energy for it. The extra weight is really helping me. I added extra meals to my day to make me stronger. Before, I had to skip meals."

The added intricacies to Garcia's regiment, he hopes, can help him make a statement. It's a crossroads fight for each, with Malignaggi looking to maintain a profile in the sport and Garcia hopeful to make a splash in the talented welterweight division.

"I have a champion in front of me," Garcia said. "I gotta go in there 110 percent mentally and physically prepared and get the job done. After that, we can see what's next for me."

Before joining yesterday's conference call, Daniel Jacobs spent time brightening the lives of some Philadelphia-area children who are battling cancer. Jacobs, a Brownsville, N.Y., native, met with kids yesterday at Gilda's Club, a cancer-support community in Warminster.

Jacobs will defend his WBA middleweight title on the co-feature of the Garcia-Malignaggi card against former champion Sergio Mora.

Being able to give back to children suffering through cancer is a personal mission for Jacobs. Jacobs, whose nickname is "Miracle Man," was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a life-threatening form of bone cancer. The cancer, which Jacobs beat, caused him to take more than a year away from the ring.

Jacobs (29-1, 26 KOs) has reeled off seven straight wins in less than 3 years since making his return.

Now, even as he trains and prepares to fight, he spends a lot of his free time meeting with children through his "Get In The Ring Foundation." Today, Jacobs will visit Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in Manhattan.