By Jim Dower: Former International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) really likes his chances if he was to ever face WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO’s). In an article at Boxing Talk, Malignaggi, 29, says “I think Maidana wins a round against me. People are criticizing [Amir] Khan for taking me on instead of Maidana, like he belongs ahead of me or something. What has Maidana accomplished that was so good? I’m a former world champion, he isn’t.”

What Malignaggi fails to see is that Maidana hits incredibly hard and stopped top prospect Victor Ortiz in the 6th round last year in June. The fight was shown on HBO and it was an exciting fight in which Maidana was knocked down several times in the fight and got up off the deck each time to continue to take the fight to the hard hitting Ortiz. Eventually, Maidana took Ortiz out in the 6th, knocking him down in the round.

Malignaggi clearly has the much better experience compared to Maidana with wins over Edner Cherry, Herman Ngoudjo, Lovemore N’dou and Juan Diaz. However, the wins over N’dou and Ngoudjo were close and controversial. Some people felt that Malignaggi should have lost both of those fights. Also, Malignaggi was taken out by Ricky Hatton in 2008 in an 11th round stoppage in November. Maidana, a fighter with big power in both hands, would likely be more than a handful for Hatton to have to deal with, even in the prime of his career.

As for Malignaggi saying that Maidana couldn’t win even one round against him, I think he’s dead wrong. I think Malignaggi might win some rounds narrowly while he’s running from Maidana and pecking with quick shots and then moving immediately to stay out of the way of Maidana. However, Maidana looked good in cutting off the ring against Ortiz when Victor tried to use movement in the 6th round of their fight.

Maidana was on him incredibly fast, and showed a ton of power at close range. Most fighters are only able to throw with big power at the point where they can extend their arms full. Maidana, though, is able to generate an enormous amount of power at close range, which is what makes him so dangerous. Maidana was beaten by Andriy Kotelnik in controversial 12 round split decision in February 2009 in a fight that took place in Germany, the adopted country of Kotelnik.

Malignaggi is bothered that boxing fans question Khan’s rationale for fighting the feather-fisted Malignaggi rather than the knockout artist Maidana. It’s obviously hard for Malignaggi to accept that fans are angry with Khan for what they see as him ducking Maidana to go after a fighter who has zero power.

However, if Malignaggi saw it from the perspective of the fans, who realize that Khan has a weak chin and is vulnerable against a fighter like Malignaggi, then Malignaggi would understand why fans prefer that Khan face Maidana. Khan does well against weak punchers like Malignaggi; hence that’s why he was chosen in the first place to fight Khan.