Pacquiao vs. Malignaggi: Will Paulie be the next sacrificial lamb?

By Chris Williams: With the rejection of promoter Bob Arum’s proposal for drug testing by Golden Boy Promotions and Floyd Mayweather’s adviser Leonard Ellerbe, it now looks like the March 13th planned bout between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is off the table for now. Arum had set Monday as the deadline for Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions to either accept his offer of having the Nevada Athletic Commission decide on the appropriate drug testing for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout or decline.

Golden Boy’s CEO Richard Schaefer along with Ellerbe refused the offer from Arum earlier tonight. Arum had mentioned that he would match Pacquiao up with Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) if his final proposal to Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions was rejected. That looks the case now. I don’t know why, but the specter of having Pacquiao matched up against Malignaggi is really off putting for me, maybe because I don’t see Malignaggi as an elite fighter. Technically, Malignaggi is still a 1st tier fighter ranked #4 in the IBF and #8 in the WBC, but I don’t agree with his inflated ranking. To me, Malignaggi is a bottom 15 guy rather than a top 10. Although Malignaggi has only been beaten three times in his career, I think he’d have been beaten a lot more than that if he’d faced better opposition.

I don’t see what the attraction is for Arum with picking Malingaggi to fight Pacquiao. This move isn’t doing Pacquiao any favors other than putting him in with a fighter who will be way over his head and looking to survive. Unlike Pacquiao’s recent opponents, Malignaggi has little power and only average offensive skills. His whole thing is to run and peck with his jabs. He’ll throw a right hand every once in awhile, but it’s more like a jab than a power punch. He won’t be able to keep Pacquiao off of him unless he decides to run for the full 12 rounds.

I can only imagine the betting that will be going on in Las Vegas to guess how long Malignaggi will survive against Pacquiao. I can’t see him staying in there for long unless Pacquiao decides to carry him for a number of rounds to torture him for his comments he’d made in the press where he hinted that Pacquiao was taking steroids. Pacquiao might want to get even with him for that. However, by fighting Malignaggi, Pacquiao is really doing him a big favor by giving him the biggest payday of his career.

Arum must know something the rest of us don’t, because a Malignaggi-Pacquiao fight probably won’t be a huge event. It takes two good fighters to bring in huge crowds and big Pay-per-view numbers, and I just don’t see Malignaggi as a big enough star for this fight to do well. Arum should have tried to lure someone else like Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan or Ricky Hatton instead of Malignaggi. Pacquiao will make easy work with Malignaggi, who is classic safety first finesse type fighter. One good thing that can come out of this fight is that if Pacquiao destroys Malignaggi early in the 1st or 2nd rounds, then Pacquiao could fight his next fight a lot sooner. Hopefully by then, they could work out a deal to fight Mayweather.

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