Former two-division titleholder Paulie Malignaggi will return to the ring 13 months after his last fight when he faces Danny O'Connor in a welterweight bout on May 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Malignaggi's hometown.
The welterweight fight will open the Spike TV-televised "Premier Boxing Champions" card (9 p.m. ET) headlined by the welterweight fight between former junior welterweight titleholders Amir Khan and Chris Algieri.
Malignaggi, who has won world titles at welterweight and junior welterweight, has not fought since he challenged then-welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter on April 2014 and got dominated in a fourth-round knockout loss.
Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs), 34, has carved out a career for himself as one of boxing's top television analysts, mainly on Showtime, but he decided he wanted to fight again.
"After some much needed time away from the ring, it feels great to once again be fighting at Barclays Center," said Malignaggi, who will be fighting there for the fourth time, having defeated Pablo Cesar Cano and Zab Judah (in an all-Brooklyn battle) and lost his welterweight belt to Adrien Broner. "I now look forward to being a participant in the PBC events as a fighter just as I am part of the PBC family of broadcasters."
O'Connor (25-2, 9 KOs), a 30-year-old southpaw from Boston, has won two fights in a row against lesser opponents and will be facing the most notable opponent of his career in Malignaggi.
"My supporters and I have been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this on the big stage," O'Connor said. "It's a throwback matchup -- Irish versus Italian, Boston versus New York. I'll be bringing down busloads of people, and I'm sure he's going to have a big hometown crowd. I've never been more ready for the challenge that lies ahead of me."
One of the ironies of the fight is that Lou DiBella has been hired by PBC creator Al Haymon -- who represents Malignaggi and O'Connor -- to promote the card. DiBella promoted Malignaggi for 10 years, from his 2001 pro debut until an acrimonious falling out in 2010, when Malignaggi paid DiBella $75,000 to get out of his contact.
"You never know what's going to happen in boxing," DiBella told ESPN.com. "But this is a great matchup for Brooklyn with the Italian kid from Brooklyn fighting the Irish kid from Boston. It's a very promotable fight that will get a lot of attention."