By Dan Ambrose: Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) and Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO’s) will be facing each other on Showtime on December 7th in a battle for relevancy at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. There won’t be any titles on the line because both guys are coming off of losses. This is all about trying to stay relevant for both of them.
Judah was beaten in his last fight by Danny Garcia last April, and Malignaggi was beaten last June by Adrien Broner. Malignaggi and Judah are both good fighters, but it’s difficult to imagine either of them winning another world title at this point in their careers.
Malignaggi lucked out last year in getting a fight against then WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, who had been considered a paper champion by many fans. That was the ideal situation for Malignaggi. Judah, 35, hasn’t held a world title since losing his IBF light welterweight belt against Amir Khan in 2011. Judah had captured his IBF 140 lb. title against champion Kaizer Mabuza. He too was seen as a paper champion by many fans at the time that Judah fought him.
The winner of the Judah-Malignaggi fight stays alive in their respective divisions, and who knows? Maybe the winner of the fight will get a big fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. It wouldn’t be surprising because he’s definitely run out of options as far as opponents go. Mayweather already beat Judah years ago in 2006 by a 12 round unanimous decision defeat.
It’s not all that interesting to imagine seeing a rematch between them at this point. Judah has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, and it wouldn’t be all that interesting to see him getting a title shot against Mayweather off a win against the recently beaten Malignaggi. I don’t think that boxing fans would want to purchase a Mayweather-Judah II rematch on pay-per-view in high numbers. The same goes for Mayweather vs. Malignaggi. That’s not an interesting fight because Malignaggi wouldn’t stand a chance due to his lack of power.
Judah has a clear advantage over Malignaggi in the speed and power department. The only thing that’s hard to gauge in this fight is how well Judah will do if things start going badly for him. He seems to cave in when things turn sour for him, and Judah might be able to get him out of his game by showboating. Judah has so many miles on him that it’s hard to say how he’ll do in any given fight.
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