By Keith Idec

His family and friends were adamantly against it, but Paulie Malignaggi made the difficult decision to return to the ring in large part because he didn’t want his fourth-round knockout loss to Shawn Porter to be the final fight of his career.

Malignaggi’s motivation for fending off retirement was among the things the 34-year-old boxer/broadcaster revealed in an essay he wrote for The Players’ Tribune, the Derek Jeter-owned website that published it Friday. Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs), a former junior welterweight and welterweight champion from Brooklyn, will fight for the first time Saturday night since Porter knocked him out 15 months ago in a 12-round main event against Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs) at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (ESPN; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).

“Every boxer wants a happy ending,” Malignaggi wrote. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to retire as a winner. Look at some of the greatest ever. Mike Tyson, Arturo Gatti – some of my favorites. Their careers ended on the canvas. I would love for my career to not end on the canvas. If I walked away now, after that Shawn Porter fight, my career would end just that way; on the canvas. I want to at least try to walk away on a positive note. We’ll see. The story is yet to be written.

“I’m the underdog Saturday night, but I’m used to that. Before boxing, I had nothing. I had no direction. I got kicked out of school. I got kicked out of my mom’s house. I don’t have a high school diploma. I don’t have a GED. And I’ve still been successful. I’ve had to travel to other fighters’ countries and hometowns to win world championships. And I’ve won them. Now, I’ve got to go up against the odds again. That’s the story of my life. The only question left to answer is: Who’s right? Are the doubters right, or is Paulie Malignaggi right?

“We’ll find out.”

To read Malignaggi’s entire entry for The Players’ Tribune, click here: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/paulie-malignaggi-danny-garcia-boxing/

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.