Rolando Dy Promises to Stop Paulie Malignaggi, Names Figher He Wants Next

Dy says he will beat Paulie Malignaggi at BKB 54: Manchester Mayhem

Rolando Dy was a man on a mission when he won the BKB Super welterwieght from Liam Rees in 2025 | BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing

Rolando Dy vows he will knock out former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi at BKB 54: Manchester Mayhem

“If my game plan and the way I see it happening, it will be a fourth-round knockout or TKO,” he said, offering his prediction for how the fight would unfold.

Rolando Dy will defend his BKB super welterweight world title against former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi tonight in Manchester, England.

Backstage at the press conference, both Dy and Malignaggi are all laughs. Dy jokes with Malignaggi that he would have worn a suit as well if he had known the former world champion planned to arrive dressed sharply for the occasion. Instead, the Filipino fighter chose black shorts and a dark shirt more suited for a ring walk than a formal media event.

Paulie Malignaggi expresses his opinions on Canelo Alvarez maybe facing David Benavidez and predicts a clear result

Age may well be a factor in Dy’s confident prediction of a stoppage. Dy is 34 years old. Malignaggi is 45. They bring vastly different combat résumés and fighting styles into this world title clash in England’s second-largest city.

Malignaggi enters the bout with a professional boxing record of 36-8 with 7 knockouts, having held world titles at junior welterweight and welterweight. In bare-knuckle boxing, he is 1-1.

Dy enters with a 5-1 bare-knuckle record alongside a 14-2 professional MMA record. The Filipino champion waved off any concerns that Malignaggi’s vastly superior boxing experience would become a decisive factor. Bareknuckle combat is a different sport entirely, he assured me.

Last year, he defeated Liam Rees to become the first bare-knuckle boxing world champion from the Philippines. He hasn’t fought since that December 5, 2025 bout and his fight with Malignaggi will be the first defense of his title.

A lot of big names in boxing have signed with BKB in recent months. Dy rattles the names off in succession — the sons of Fernando Vargas, Jr., and former world champion and Cuban amateur standout Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-5 with 18 Kos).

“It means a lot of attention to the sport and me as well as an athlete, but they’re all in lower weight classes,” Dy said when asked whether those fighters could eventually challenge him at 154 pounds.

Rolando Dy wants to face Victor Ortiz

There is one name he is eager to see in the ring: Victor Ortiz, now 39 years old.

“I am looking forward to defending the BKB title against him,” Dy said. “I was watching him when I was young. It would be an honor to face him.”

Victor Ortiz | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Of course, the age gap between Dy and Ortiz is not quite the same as, say, the nearly decade-wide gulf between Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano when they fought. Still, this weekend’s bout feels like a blood-soaked palimpsest where old title fights cast shadows across newer generations of fighters.

After all, Dy’s father is Rolando Navarrete, who won the WBC junior-lightweight champion by beating Cornelius “Boza” Edwards in Italy in 1981. Malignaggi was a small child in Italy at the time.

By chance, Edwards was also in Lovemore Ndou’s corner when Paulie Malignaggi won his first boxing world title by defeating Ndou to capture his first world title in 2007, the IBF junior welterweight championship. Perhaps the biggest victory of Malignaggi’s career. Conversely, defeating Malignaggi by knockout would be the biggest win of Dy’s career.