By Danny Alvarez

At 36, former two-division champ Paulie Malignaggi knows he’s at the tail end of his career. Training camps get harder. Sparring sessions hurt more. Recovery is slower.

The fight game is merciless, retiring fighters often than not.

For every Vitali Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, and Floyd Mayweather, there’s a Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, and Bernard Hopkins, three legends all ending their careers with humiliating defeats.

“[Boxing’s] like bad girlfriend,” Malignaggi said prior to his last fight, a shutout decision vs. Brooklyn comrade Gabriel Bracero. “She’s broken my heart. She’ll do it again. But I keep coming back for more.”

On March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, Malignaggi takes on 23-year-old Brit Sam Eggington in a crossroads fight, with the outcome determining retirement...or return to contention.

Despite this, the Magic Man wants to write his final chapter, go out his way, on his terms. With one more dream.

"You just want to be able to keep dreaming a little longer,” he told Fighthype.com. “You just want to be able to feel, just a little while longer, that rush of really this stupendous emotion that is hard to really describe.”

With a stubborn refusal to turn to scientific enhancements, the Brooklyner’s body is breaking down, giving into the natural process of aging. Retirement looms around the corner — and he knows it.

“When you’re younger, you take it for granted,” he said. “As I get older and I realize that the big stage is passing me by, the next generation comes along, I’m really thankful that I’m still able to perform at this level. I’m almost back in the Top 10.

“The Top 10 is pretty top-heavy but at the bottom, it’s pretty much open season. A win over Sam Eggington puts me in the lower-top 10 of the welterweight division. At this stage of my career, it would be a blessing for me to achieve and then we’ll take it from there.”

Without the youthful hubris, the extra rush of testosterone, Malignaggi sometimes questions his decision to fight, his decision to train in spite of pain. His decision to skip a meal when he’s hungry.

“Performing in England is something that I love, the fans are appreciative and they make you feel it’s worth the work,” he says.

But there’s also the factor of pride, the desire to write your last chapter.

In 1991, former No. 1 tennis champion Jimmy Connors was granted a “Wild Card” to the US Open—the equivalent of a charity ticket.

With five US Open titles, 109 titles (the only man to win over a 100) and a then-record 160 weeks as the best in the world, at 39, Connors was written off as a has-been leading into the tournament.

“He was No. 1 one in the world. He came in as a Wild Card in 1991, ranked 175th in the world. He wanted to make one last run, he said. He said he wanted to go out on his terms. [Boxers] want to go out on their terms but they never get to, really. They always get beat and get forced out.

“Connors didn’t win. He got some good wins, got to the semis. Connors reaching the semis was a big moment for him because at that point, everyone had written him off. He was able to retire off that performance. He didn’t become the champion of the US Open. But it was a performance he could hold his head up high off,” he says.

As March 4 comes closer, Malignaggi dares to dream—if just for a little while longer.

“Every fight could be the last one,” he says. “I win this one, I’m in the Top 10.

“Is the Top 10 my Jimmy Connors semifinal moment? Or do I push it and try and get to the finals; try and get to one last big fight?”