By Jim Dower: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, a fight between World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto and former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi is being considered for April 10th. That would be an interesting fight except that Berto already fought a light welterweight in his last fight, beating Juan Urango by a 12 round lopsided decision in May.
If Berto is going to be fighting light welterweights over and over again, he might as well give up his WBC welterweight title and campaign in the smaller light welterweight division instead of asking the smaller fighters to come up to his weight. As a champion, Berto has fought Steve Forbes and Luis Collazo, two fighters that aren’t exactly the most dangerous in the division.
Granted, Berto was supposed to be fighting WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley on January 30th, but Andre pulled out because some of the members of his extended family died in the Haiti earthquake recently. But it would be nice to see Berto take on a bigger welterweight instead of the light welterweights for a change. At the minimum, Berto should take on someone like Carlos Quintana. That would be a great fight. I think Berto would lose, but it would still be a great fight.
In other news, Gary Shaw, who promotes WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, is looking to match Bradley up against WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana for a fight in the spring, according to Rafael. That’s an interesting fight. I’d rather see Maidana face WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, but I doesn’t look like Khan’s promotional company, Golden Boy Promotions, want to put Khan in with a big slugger like Maidana just yet.
Khan is supposed to fight Maidana next because the WBA ordered the fight, but it looks like Khan will be given an exception to get a fight – possibly Juan Manuel Marquez – in between the Maidana bout. It will be interesting to see if Khan ever does fight Maidana, if Khan can get by Marquez, that is.
I can see Khan vacating his title rather than facing a slugger like Maidana. Zab Judah is also apparently interested in fighting Maidana. I can’t see Judah winning that fight unless he can somehow out-box Maidana. Judah would probably build up a lead over Maidana in the first five or six rounds, and then run out of gas and start taking heavy punishment in the last six rounds leading to a stoppage similar to Judah’s fights against Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey.
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