By Allan Fox: Former IBF light welterweight champion Juan Urango (22-3-1, 17 KO’s) will be making a comeback on April 26th after two years out of boxing when he takes on Cristian Chavez (23-18, 11 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round welterweight bout at the Centro Bancomer, in Mexico City, Mexico.
It’s surprising that the 31-year-old Urango is looking to fight a full 10 rounds rather than easing his way back into fighting by scheduling an eight round bout and working upwards depending on how he does against Chavez.
Urango hasn’t fought since he was stopped in the 8th round in a fight against Devon Alexander in March 2010. Alexander had too much speed and caught Urango with a big hook while he was coming forward, flattening him. Urango could have done a lot more in the division after that fight, and it’s too bad he responded to the defeat by taking two years off. He could have easily have snatched up the WBC title, and who knows what a big puncher like Urango could have done against someone like Amir Khan during the last two years. He missed out on a lot of fights by staying active. Hopefully Urango still has his skills intact and hasn’t lost anything. With his power, he could be very quickly in the thick of things in the light welterweight division.
Chavez, 27, has lost a ton of fights and is being brought in as an opponent for Urango. He pretty has no chance unless Urango is incredibly rusty from his time off.
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Malignaggi vs. Senchenko on April 29th
Paulie Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) will be looking to show he still has something left in the gas tank against WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KO’s) on April 29th in a crucial fight for Malignaggi. He hasn’t faced world level competition for two years since he was beaten by Amir Khan by a Amir Khan by an 11th round TKO defeat in May 2010. Malignaggi decided to take a hint after the Khan defeat and move up to the welterweight division to try and start over. Malignaggi has taken on and beaten several easy marks to get a number #2 ranking by the World Boxing Association.
However, on April 29th, Malignaggi will be back in with a world class opponent, albeit an untested one in Senchenko. It’s really hard to predict a winner in this fight because neither guy has been in with world class opposition recently. Senchenko has never faced anyone you could consider as a world class fighter, which is kind of sad. He’s defended his WBA title three times but against weak opposition each time. It just looks like Senchenko has been milking his title instead of going after bigger fights, and the Malignaggi fight can still be considered a milk job because Malignaggi really isn’t in the same league as the guys that he’s ranked above by the WBA, such as Kell Brook and Devon Alexander. Sencenko, if he’s any good, he should be able to beat Malignaggi without any problems because Malignaggi doesn’t belong at 147.