By Eric Thomas: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) will test his skills against one of the better fighters at 147 in WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KO’s) on April 29th at the Donbass Arena in Donestsk, Ukraine. Senchenko, 34, isn’t the very best fighter in the division but he’s definitely top 10 to top 15 among all of the welterweights.

Unlike Malignaggi, Senchenko is a legitimate welterweight and has superb boxing skills that is going to make it really tough on Malignaggi to cope with on April 29th. Malignaggi already has a couple strikes against him with him coming into Ukraine as the visiting fighter, and one with no power to speak of. Senchenko is a boxer like Malignaggi, but he’s got an added element that he can punch a little and has decent size at 5’10”.

That’s going to make it really tough on Malignaggi to outbox him. Malignaggi doesn’t have a jab as good as Senchenko nor does he have the reach to stand on the outside to try and beat him in a jabbing war. As such, Malignaggi will have to take chances by rushing Senchenko to try and land some big shots and get out before he has a chance to land anything of his own. Malignaggi has done a good job of beating limited fighters around his own height and smaller while fighting at light welterweight, but this is going to be different. Senchenko has better skills than most of the guys that Malignaggi has fought in the past, and he’s got all that reach that Malignaggi will have to deal with.

If Malignaggi can get past Senchenko, it’ll open up bigger fighters against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, who might see Malignaggi’s WBA belt and could be tempted to go after it to add an easy strap to their collection.