By Chris Williams: You really want to give Mark Melligen (21-3, 14 KO’s) a chance to develop more because he can punch a little bit, but after seeing him get destroyed by a very average Sebastian Andres Lujan last week in a 9th round TKO loss on July 1st, I think his promoter Bob Arum needs to cut his losses and head in a different direction. At 25, Melligen is probably as fast as he’s ever going to be and he’s really lacking in that department.
Melligen’s hand speed is slow, and I think his chin is very questionable after getting stopped by a non-puncher like Lujan. The thing is that wasn’t Melligen’s first stoppage loss. He was stopped four years ago by little known fighter Yong-Sung Kim. I know Arum probably sees Melligen as a diamond in the rough, but there’s just too many flaws in that diamond for it turn out to be a quality stone as far as I can tell.
If I’m Arum, I’m throwing that one away and looking for a better stone that I can polish up and make something of. Melligen just looks too slow to me, and if he can’t get by guys like Lujan, how in the world is he going to be able to beat harder punchers like Saul Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo. It’s worse than that, how is he even going to get a shot at fighting them. You can’t even cash out with Melligen if he can’t be the preliminary guys.
Arum might find it hard trying to get a title fight for Melligen if he has to match him against 2nd tier guys just to keep him winning. I know it’s done all the time, but I think this loss will stay in the minds of the ranking bodies and I can’t see Melligen getting pushed up the rankings unless he can beat some of the fringe contenders. I don’t think he can.
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