malignaggi133 By Allan Fox: Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi (33-7, 7 KOs) will be back inside the ring later this month against an opponent still to be determined in a six round fight on September 26th at the Teatro Principe, Milan, Lombardia, Italy.

Given that Malignaggi will be fighting a six round fight, it’s likely that he’ll be facing a weaker 2nd or 3rd tier fighter rather than a top tier guy. But even against a weaker opponent, you just never know what you’re going to get with Malignaggi at this point in his career. He’s up there in age and he’s not a puncher. Any fight could turn out to be a difficult one for him.

The 34-year-old Malignaggi is coming off of a 9th round knockout loss to former WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last month on August 1st on Premier Boxing Champions at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight was as one-sided as can be, and it probably should have been stopped after the first three rounds because Malignaggi looked like a frail punching bag in the ring.

After the fight, Malignaggi hinted that he might not fight again, which would have made sense given how poor he looked against Garcia and in his previous fight against Shawn Porter last year in April 2014. However, Malignaggi has had time to digest his latest loss to Garcia, and in hindsight he thinks it wasn’t the best idea for him to have taken the fight off a year layoff.

Malignaggi says he wants to fight in Europe and keep his options open for any fights that can come his way. Malignaggi got a nice purse of $550,000 for the Garcia fight. That’s not bad money for a fighter who is no longer ranked in the top 15 by any of the boxing sanctioning bodies at 147. I’m sure Malignaggi would leap at the chance to get another half million as an opponent for one of the bigger names in the sport like Adrien Broner, Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman.

“Fighting in Italy has always been my desire as I was born in New York from Italian parents,” Malignaggi said via Fightnews.com. “I lived the first six years of my life in Italy and I visited my ancestral country countless times.”

If Malignaggi is able to get in a few record padding wins over weak opposition in Europe, he could become a viable opponent for one of the better known top contenders or world champions. This could lead to another payday for Malignaggi. That’s pretty much all you can expect for Malignaggi at this point in his career, because it’s extremely doubtful that he’ll ever be able to win another world title.

Malignaggi lucked out in winning the WBA World welterweight title against Vyacheslav Senchenko in April 2012. It was a case of Malignaggi getting a fight against a weak champion, and taking advantage of that situation by picking up a belt the easy way. As of now, there aren’t any weak champions at 147 or 140 for Malignaggi to exploit, so the chances of him winning another strap would seem to be remote at best.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will likely be giving up his WBA and WBC welterweight titles when he retires next year, but Malignaggi would find it very tough going if he attempted to fight for one of those straps because he would have to fight the likes of Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia or Amir Khan. All three of those fighters have beaten Malignaggi by knockout in the past, so it’s clearly not an option for him to go after any of those titles. Further, Malignaggi doesn’t have the ranking in the top 15 with the WBA and WBC to fight for those belts.

Malignaggi last won a fight in 2013, when he beat a clearly past his best Zab Judah by a 12 round unanimous decision. Since then, Malignaggi has lost back to back fights against Porter and Danny Garcia. Those two guys would have been a nightmare for Malignaggi to fight no matter what point of his career.

In looking at how Malignaggi has performed in his recent losses, he doesn’t appear to have lost too much from his original game. It looks more like a case of him fighting guys that are simply a lot better than the kinds of opposition that he fought in the past.