By Eric Thomas: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (28-4, 6 KO’s) is about to reveal who his next opponent will be today. Malignaggi, 30, had this to say on his twitter account today: “I want everyone to be on twitter when I drop the bomb. So I’ll be tweeting around 5ish, so stay tuned!!!” Malignaggi is ranked #11 WBO and #15 in the welterweight division, and is looking to keep climbing up the rankings so that he can get a title shot. Malignaggi moved up in weight in December, stopping Michael Lozada in the 6th round in an impression showing.

Unlike his previous fights at light welterweight, Malignaggi looked a lot more powerful at the higher weight, which leads one to think that Malignaggi may have hurt himself by staying at light welterweight for much of his career. Malignaggi perhaps should have moved up in weight a long time ago when his power started to dry up. He’s been stripping off weight to make the division and he’s probably been sacrificing a lot of muscle in the process.

Malignaggi was stopped in the 11th round by WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan last year in May. That was a strong signal that it was time for Malignaggi to move up in weight where he can use his speed and boxing skills against the much slower welterweights. Thus far, Malignaggi is looking good and it clearly was a smart move for him to move up in weight. With his speed and new found power, I can see Malignaggi giving top welterweights like Mike Jones, Shane Mosley and Andre Berto a lot of problems.