Malignaggi may not be fighting Senchenko next after Golden Boy losses purse bid

By Boxing News - 01/26/2012 - Comments

Image: Malignaggi may not be fighting Senchenko next after Golden Boy losses purse bidBy Jason Kim: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) is reporting that his promoters Golden Boy lost their purse bid to WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko’s promoters.

Senchenko’s promoters put in a winning bid of $1 million, which is a huge amount of money that Golden Boy didn’t want to match for a fight like this. What this means is that the fight could possibly not get made because Malignaggi is reluctant to have to travel all the way to Ukraine to fight the Ukrainian Senchenko (32-0, 21 KO’s) there where Malignaggi might find it difficult to win a decision as the visiting fighter. Malignaggi will have to accept being the visiting fighter and taking what could be less money than he was hoping to get.

Malignaggi isn’t a power puncher, so being able to win a decision would be extremely important for him.

Malignaggi said on his twitter page “I have bad news…Senchenko and Ukraine have won the purse bid for $1 million dollars!!! I have so much to say but I have to hold it in…Hopefully something can happen to get me back in the ring.”

Malignaggi was hoping to get a nice payday out of this fight but it won’t likely happen if he has to negotiate with Senchenko’s team and fight in Ukraine. He’ll probably have to take what he can get and be happy with whatever is offered to him.

The money is one thing but coming into the fight as a visitor will make it all the worse for Malignaggi because you have to really do a lot to beat a champion when they’re fighting in their own country. Senchenko is bigger, stronger and has a better jab than Malignaggi. Senchenko’s game is centered around winning fights by decision, even though he does have a lot of knockouts on his resume, albeit against little known opposition.

You can make an argument that Malignaggi, #2 WBA, is hardly deserving of a title shot at welterweight given his lack of competitive fights since he moved up to welterweight in December 2010 from the light welterweight division. In three fights at welterweight, Malignaggi has beaten Michael Lozada, Jose Miguel Cotto and Orlando Lora. That’s a pretty average bunch to be fighting for someone to get pushed to the #2 sport by the World Boxing Association. It seems that Malignaggi got pushed to the top of the WBA mainly on him being a former IBF champion and a well-known fighter rather than for having beaten anyone of note since moving up in weight. A contender that could have a good chance of beating Senchenko in Ukraine is unbeaten #3 WBA ranked Thomas Dulorme, who punches very hard and could take the judges and the crowd out of the picture by knocking Senchenko out. He could be next in line in trying to get a fight against Senchenko if Malignaggi fails to take the shot.



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