By Dave Lahr: Former International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) is ready to step in for unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. and fight Manny Pacquiao on March 13th. Malignaggi, 29, has been picked by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum to be one of the possible replacements for Mayweather. Malignaggi is obviously overjoyed at being considered as an opponent for Pacquiao, because this will mean he would be getting the biggest payday of his career if he ends up being picked over the other fighters that Top Rank is considering.

Another fighter that is being considered is Yuri Foreman, the World Boxing Association light middleweight champion. This would give Pacquiao a chance to win an 8th world title if he were to beat Foreman. Of the current light middleweight champions, Foreman is considered by some to be the weakest of the current light middleweight champions, and thus possibly an easier target than the other champions Sergio Martinez, Cory Spinks, Sergeii Dzinziruk and Alfredo Angulo.

About the drug testing issue that has derailed Pacquiao’s fight with Mayweather, Malignaggi said this to Gman News – “I won’t mind if Manny [Pacquiao] refuses to submit a blood test the day before the fight. If Manny wants to submit to a blood test a month before the fight, it’s not a problem with me. I am even willing to submit to blood test 10 times a day before the fight if I am going to face Manny or Mayweather.” It’s clear that Malignaggi is eager to get the fight and the huge payday that goes with it. Naturally, he’s not going to make waves by asking Pacquiao to take random Olympic style blood tests like Mayweather was doing.

One worrisome problem about the selection of Malignaggi is his recent struggles in the ring. Malignaggi has been beaten two out of his last four fights, and despite the loss to Juan Diaz being controversial in their first fight, there’s no mistaking that Malignaggi struggled against the lightweight. Malignaggi was stopped in the 11th round by Ricky Hatton last year in a fight that wasn’t in the least bit close. Although Malignaggi has only three losses on his record, something that makes him look good, he hasn’t faced the tougher fighters in the division like Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz, Lamont Peterson, Ricardo Torres, Juan Urango, Nate Campbell, Victor Cayo, Amir Khan, Junior Witter and Andriy Kotelnik.

It would be hard to imagine that Malignaggi could beat any of those fighters. It’s possible he might be good enough to beat one, possibly two if he were to fight really well, but I suspect he would lose to all of them. This is why it seems disappointing that Malignaggi would be selected as Pacquiao’s opponent on March 13th. Things are still up in the air right now, but it’s looking like Malignaggi might be the one selected for Pacquiao. If that does happen, this will likely be a one-sided fight along the lines of Pacquiao’s 2nd round knockout win over Ricky Hatton in May.

Malignaggi doesn’t have the power to keep Pacquiao off and will probably be running for his life from the word go. It appears that Arum likes this fight for Pacquiao for some reason. It could be that he wants him to have an easy fight or maybe he sees the short terms benefit of having a slightly bigger named fighter going up against Pacquiao compared to other potential opponents like Bradley. Malignaggi might be better known, but he probably won’t make for an exciting fight because he likes to run a lot. Bradley would be more interesting because he goes right at his opponents and tries to beat them up.