Malignaggi-Senchenko: Paulie will have problems on Sunday

By Boxing News - 04/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Malignaggi-Senchenko: Paulie will have problems on SundayBy Jason Kim: Paulie Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) will be fighting for a world title at welterweight for the first and perhaps the last time at this weight class against WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KO’s) on Sunday night at the Donbass Arena, in Donetsk, Ukraine.

This is a big step up for the 31-year-old Malignaggi from the guys he’s been padding his resume with in his last three fights against Michael Lozada, Jose Miguel Cotto and Orlando Lora at 147, and Malignaggi might be in for a brutal surprise that it’s a different world facing a champion rather than 2nd tier opposition. But Malignaggi did achieve his goal in getting a title shot, so even if things turn out badly for him against the 5’9″ Senchenko on Sunday night, which is highly likely, he’ll still have gotten the payday for his troubles.

Senchenko is clearly a paper champion, arguably the weakest by far of the current 147 pound champs. That doesn’t mean he’s not any good, because he clearly is. He’s just not a legitimate top 10 welterweight in my view when you lump all the welterweights together instead of spreading them out among four different sanctioning bodies in the way that they are right now.

With the watering down of different weight divisions with all of the different alphabet titles, you get fighters like Senchenko holding down a title with fighters like Malignaggi ranked #2 by the World Boxing Association instead say around #25. It is what it is. Senchenko still appears to be far too good for Malignaggi, and I see this fight as being a really one-sided fight from star to finish.

Malignaggi is worried about losing a controversial decision, but he shouldn’t worry about it. It’s not going to be close enough for him to get robbed, because Malignaggi doesn’t have the tools to get the job done against Senchenko.



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