Malignaggi interested in Khan, Maidana or Berto for next fight

By Boxing News - 01/31/2013 - Comments

malignaggi434By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) may not be fighting on the April 27th fight card at the Barclays Center in Brookly, New York, according to ESPN.

There’s no word about why he won’t be fighting on the card, but in recent interviews Malignaggi has been saying that he has it in his contract with Golden Boy Promotions that he should be a main event fighter. If Malignaggi were to fight on the April 27th card, he would likely be the co-main event given that the main event is Zab Judah vs. Danny Garcia. The only way Malignaggi wound unseat that fight as the main event is if he were to face Amir Khan.

Malignaggi told RingTV that he’s interested in facing Amir Khan, Andre Berto or Marcos Maidana next.

There’s a possibility that Malignaggi’s next fight will be overseas, according to ESPN. Malignaggi doesn’t want to say who the opponent would be, but it seems logical that Golden Boy might be looking to put Malignaggi in with Amir Khan in April because Khan doesn’t have an opponent still after former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko wasn’t able to agree to the catchweight that Khan wanted for a fight at welterweight.

It would have to be Khan that Malignaggi would be willing travel overseas to face because there are no other big name welterweights or light welterweights for Malignaggi to fight.

Malignaggi was already beaten soundly by Khan in an 11th round TKO defeat in 2010. The fight wasn’t even competitive because Khan had way too much speed and power for the slower, weaker Malignaggi to compete with.

If Malignaggi agrees to a Khan fight then, he must be at the end of his rope in terms of his problems trying to find an opponent that Showtime will say yes to. Malignaggi was going to face 41-year-old Shane Mosley, but due to contract problems the fight couldn’t be made.



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