By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (28-4, 6 KO’s) recently moved up to the welterweight division to try and extend his sagging career. Malignaggi started off well with a 11th round TKO win over Michael Lozado last December. Malignaggi now will try and duplicate that performance against Jose Miguel Cotto (32-2-1, 24 KO’s) in a fight on the undercard of the Marcos Maidana vs. Erik Morales bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cotto, 33, is the older brother of WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, but much shorter than him at 5’5 1/2″. However, Jose Miguel Cotto can punch hard for someone that short and he could give Malignaggi a lot of problems if he’s able to connect a lot in the first six rounds or so. Cotto can hit as hard as Amir Khan, and we saw what Khan did to Malignaggi recently when he took Malignaggi out in an 11th round TKO loss last year in May. The last thing that Malignaggi needs is for Cotto to spoil his plans on resurrecting his career. A loss for Malignaggi right now would derail any chances for Malignaggi to get a high profile fight against one of the current welterweight champions like WBC champ Andre Berto or a future bout against Maidana.
Malignaggi looked good in the Lozado fight but that fight wasn’t much of a challenge for Malignaggi. Cotto is going to be a different story because of his ability to punch with power. Cotto gave Saul Alvarez all he could handle in a 9th round stoppage loss in May 2010. Cotto had Alvarez hurt at one point in the fight but was unable to finish him off.
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