By Eric Baldwin: Welterweights Paulie Malignaggi and Sam Eggington have been added to the David Haye vs. Tony Bellew card on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The 36-year-old Malignaggi (36-7, 7 KOs) might soon regret taking this fight against the 23-year-old Eggington (19-3, 11 KOs).
It’s a bad match-up for Malignaggi at this point in his career. Eggington is coming off of a big 8th round TKO win over Frankie Gavin last October, and he’s looking very good right now. Two of Eggington’s defeats in his career have come in 3 round fights.
You can’t really count those as defeats. Eggington’s other loss was to Bradley Skeete in March of 2016. That was a really close fight.
Eggington will have his WBC International 147lb title on the line for the Malignaggi fight.
This is a tough fight for Malignaggi at this point in his career. He’s not as mobile as he once was, and he’s going to need to be able to move constantly against Eggington if he doesn’t want to absorb a lot of punishment. Skeete moved for 12 rounds against Eggington, and he still ended up with a badly swollen face.
Eggington is good at cutting off the ring, and applying a lot of pressure on his opponents. Eggington’s previous fight against Skeete should help him deal with the movement of Malignaggi. Skeete is a better mover than Malignaggi.
“This is the big name and big card that I’ve wanted for some time,” said Eggington. “I am confident that I can beat him, and beating him is a big scalp on my record and it puts me in that World bracket which is where I want to be.”
Eggington is rated #15 by the World Boxing Council at 147. If Malignaggi beats him, then he could get a top 15 ranking. That would give one of the champions an excuse to fight Malignaggi. He’s a name that a lot of casual boxing fans recognize in the U.S, and he no punching power at 147. It’s an easy fight for any of the champions in the division.
Malignaggi was beaten by Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Adrien Broner in the last four years. However, Malignaggi has won his last three fights against Gabriel Bracero, Antonio Moscatiello and Lazlo Fazekas. Those aren’t world class fighters though.
“He’s good at what he does, he is a bit like Frankie [Gavin]really and fighting him has put me in good stead for this one, he’s not the biggest puncher and he’s smaller than Frankie, but he’s won World titles and been in with everyone,” said Eggington.
You’d have to favor Eggington in this fight. Malignaggi is tailor made for him. He’s not a big puncher, and he won’t be able to stay in the pocket against Eggington because the punishment he’ll absorb. Eggington’s high volume punch output will be a real problem for Malignaggi.