Paulie Malignaggi vs. Gianluca Branco possible for Joshua-Whyte card on 12/12

By Boxing News - 11/17/2015 - Comments

malignaggi133By Allan Fox: The soon to be 35-year-old former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi (34-7, 7 KOs) is expected to be added to the December 12th Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

Malignaggi, who turns 35 next week on November 23rd, will be facing 45-year-old EBU welterweight champion Gianluca Branco (49-3-1, 24 KOs). This isn’t a great fight for the card, but it does keep Malignaggi busy and in position for him to potentially get another big money fight in the future against one of the top dogs at 140 or 147.

Winning the WBU title against Branco would be a positive move for Malignaggi, who recently beat Laszlo Fazekas by an 8 round decision last September. Malignaggi had lost his previous fight to the much stronger Danny Garcia by a 9th round knockout last August.

Before that, Malignaggi had lost to Shawn Porter by a brutal 4th round knockout last year in April 2014. Those fights proved that Malignaggi doesn’t belong at 147 at the upper echelon of the sport. However, he’s still a good contender at 147, and he’s got the name to get him some decent fights in the future if he can keep winning.

“I’m told deal is imminent for Paul Malignaggi to challenge Gianluca Branco for Euro 147 title on Joshua-Whyte card 12/12 in London. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.

Malignaggi doesn’t want to retire yet from the sport, as he still has the desire to keep fighting despite a recent string of bad luck. Malignaggi’s lack of punching power means that he’s got to use more movement and jabbing for him to compete against the bigger punching fighters in the 147lb division. It’ll be interesting to see how long it’ll take for him to get another nice paying fight.

A rematch against Adrien Broner would be perfect for Malignaggi, because his previous 12 round decision loss to Broner in June 2013 was a controversial one. Many boxing fans believe that Malignaggi outworked Broner and deserved the decision. Broner looked bad in that fight was outclassed. As the WBA champion at the time, Malignaggi arguably deserved the benefit of the doubt in being able to hold onto his title, because Broner didn’t prove beyond a shadow of the doubt that he’d done enough to deserve the win.

Branco hasn’t fought in a year since beating Rafal Jackiewicz by a 6th round stoppage to win the vacant EBU welterweight title in November 2014. Before that, Branco had been out of the ring for 11 months since beating Konstantins Sakara by a 6 round unanimous decision in December 2013. Branco was beaten soundly by Matthew Hatton by a 12 round unanimous decision in March 2010 in a failed attempt to win the vacant EBU 147lb title.

Branco stayed persistent in his desire to win the EBU title, and it eventually paid off for him in winning the belt last year. Branco was beaten by a young Miguel Cotto nine years ago by an 8th round knockout in March 2006. Branco was also beaten by the late Arturo Gatti by a 12 round decision in January 2004.



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