By Dan Ambrose: Paulie Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) was a good light welterweight during his day for a brief period of time, but he was never the main guys in the division and he got a couple of questionable wins over Lovemore N’dou and Herman Ngoudjo that extended his time as he IBF champion longer than it should have gone.

Malignaggi eventually was stopped by Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan, and he took that hint that it was time to move up in weight to the welterweight division. Malignaggi has been given a shot against WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KO’s) on April 29th at the Donbass Arena in Donestsk, Ukraine. This isn’t a good match-up for Malignaggi because Senchenko can fight and is a real welterweight. He’s not like Malignaggi, who had to bail from the light welterweight division when things turned sour for him.

Senchenko has been at welterweight all along and he’s got excellent skills. He’s not going to try and bomb Malignaggi out of there and over-commit with his shots like a lot of Malignaggi’s opponents have done in the past. Senchenko will fight a disciplined fight by staying with his jab and left hook combinations to control the smaller, and weaker Malignaggi. He’s not going to try and take Malignaggi out in one round like some guys try to do.

If Malignaggi had some power, size and hand speed, he’s have a really good chance of winning the fight. However, he lacks the power needed to trouble Senchenko in any real way and this is going to be an easy fight for the Ukrainian Senchenko. He’ll be fighting at home in front of his own boxing fans and will have all the advantages with his size, power and home town advantage.

Malignaggi may need to make some decisions about his career if he gets beaten in this fight because he can’t just stay at stick around forever and keep getting beaten. He may need tor retire or moving back down in weight.