Paulie Malignaggi vs. Gianluca Branco possible

By Boxing News - 10/07/2015 - Comments

malignaggi133By Allan Fox: Paulie Malignaggi (34-7, 7 KOs) is interested in challenging 45-year-old EBU welterweight champion Gianluca Branco (49-3-1, 24 KOs) for his title before the end of this year. It’s a title that the 34-year-old Malignaggi would like to add to his collection of belts that he’s won during his 14-year pro career.

Despite having lost 3 out of his last 5 fights, Malignaggi is plugging forward with his career in picking off some of the lower hanging fruit to start winning again. By staying active and beating whoever he can, Malignaggi is keeping his name alive and increasing the chances that he’ll eventually get another nice paying fight like the one he got against former WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last August.

Malignaggi lost that fight by a 9th round knockout, which is no surprise to anybody given the imbalance in punching power between the two fighters. However, Malignaggi received a payday of $500,000 for the fight.

It’s likely that he wound up with at least $250,000 after he finished paying taxes and other expenses in terms of training team. That’s still very good money. Malignaggi can likely make similar money if he can keep fighting and winning against guys like Branco.

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In Malignaggi’s last fight, he defeated Hungarian journeyman Laszlo Fazekas by an 8 round unanimous decision last month on September 26th in Italy.

“The question is what’s next, what do we do from here?” Malignaggi’s adviser Anthony Catanzaro said via RingTV.com. “We have an eye on the 147-pound Italian European champion Gianluca Branco and that’s a big fight in Europe. That’s his immediate goal. At the end of the day, he didn’t take a bad loss against Garcia. Again, it’s (just) a loss.”

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It’s unclear how much money Malignaggi is getting for fighting in Europe. It’s probably not nearly as good as the money he got for the Danny Garcia fight, but it doesn’t really matter. The main thing is Malignaggi is still winning, and that helps put him in a good position to get an eventual fight against the likes of another fight against Adrien Broner, Garcia, Keith Thurman, Amir Khan, Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios.

There’s only a small handful of fighters that Malignaggi can fight in the welterweight and light welterweight division that will give him a good payday. But those guys need a name like Malignaggi because he’s better known than the vast majority of contenders in both divisions.

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Yuri Foreman making a comeback

35-year-old former WBA World junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (32-2, 9 KOs) will be making a comeback after being retired for the last two years from 2013 to 2015. His promoter Lou Dibella is reporting that Foreman will be launching a comeback. Foreman was beaten by Miguel Cotto and Pawel Wolak in back to back stoppage losses in 2010 and 2011.

Foreman came back from those losses to win four straight fights from 2011 to 2013, but he then retired in 2013. Foreman plans on returning to the ring before the end of 2015 against an opponent still to be determined. Foreman likely won’t be taking on anyone dangerous for a while until he gets comfortable after a certain amount of fights.

In addition to the recent two year period of inactivity, Foreman also was out of the ring for two years from 2011 to 2013.

“Look for a return before the end of the year,” DiBella said via RingTV.com. “There’s no reason (not to fight). He’s never taken a lot of punishment. He’s in great shape. Why not? There’s no reason he can’t come back.”

Foreman and Dibella will need to be very strategic in the type of opposition they fight, and the world champion they go after in the 154lb division. Foreman is not a big puncher, and if you put him in with the likes of IBF champion Jermall Charlo or WBA champ Erislandy Lara, he’ll likely lose.

Foreman’s best bet is to go after the winner of the Liam Smith vs. John Thompson fight for the WBO junior middleweight title. Neither of those guys are huge bangers, and Foreman would have a decent chance of beating them if he can still fight like he did in his prime of his career. Foreman is 35 now, and it’s unknown if he still has enough left to beat the top fighters in the sport.



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