Is Hearn positioning Malignaggi for Kell Brook fight?

By Boxing News - 12/02/2015 - Comments

malignaggi133By Scott Gilfoid: It was just announced that 35-year-old Paulie Malignaggi (34-7, 7 KOs) has been added to the Eddie Hearn promoted December 12th card at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Malignaggi will be fighting 45-year-old EBU welterweight champion Gianluca Branco (49-3-1, 24 KOs) on the undercard of the heavyweight fight between Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte.

British promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport also promotes IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. The talk that is floating around the boxing world is that the reason why Hearn is adding Malignaggi to the December 12th Joshua-Whyte card on Sky Box Office is to whet the appetite of British boxing fans so that he can put Malignaggi in with Brook in 2016.

Malignaggi is a well-known fighter in the UK with the hardcore boxing fans, and the idea is that they would be potentially interested in seeing Brook right a guy like him. Malignaggi is arguably badly over-the-hill though at this point in his career after losing 3 out of his last 5 fights with 2 of the defeats being knockout losses.

Currently, Malignaggi isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies. But if Malignaggi can defeat Branco, who is ranked #15 by the WBC, it would likely give Malignaggi a top 15 ranking. That in turn would give Hearn cover for making a fight between Brook and Malignaggi.

“British boxing fans are amazing and The O2 is one of the best venues in the world, I cannot wait to get over to the London and put on a great performance for the fans and get my hands on the title,” Malignaggi said. “Branco is a quality fighter with a lot of experience, but I believe that I’ll take that title on December 12 and do it in style.”

Don’t say I didn’t tell you when/if Hearn matches Brook up against Malignaggi in 2016, because I see this fight happening. If you look at the guys that Hearn has been matching Brook against since he took over as his promoter five years ago, Malignaggi is right up his alley. Look at the fighters that Hearn has been putting in with Brook and you tell me if Malignaggi won’t soon be in there with him too:

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Frankie Gavin

Jo Jo Dan

Shawn Porter

Alvaro Robles

Vyacheslav Senchenko

Carson Jones x 2

Hector David Saldivia

Matthew Hatton

Luis Galarza

Rafal Jackiewicz

Lovemore Ndou

Malignaggi fits into that weak list quite nicely, doesn’t he? What I don’t understand is why Hearn doesn’t match Brook against the quality fighters in the 147lb division like Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, and Tim Bradley?

I’d also like to see a rematch between Brook and Shawn Porter, because I thought Porter did enough to beat Brook in their fight last year. Brook constantly held Porter all night long in that fight. It was so ugly to watch, and the referee working the fight didn’t do anything to control the clinching from Brook.

If you saw Arthur Abraham’s recent fight against Martin Murray, you’ll notice that the referee did a great job of penalizing Murray for his clinching. But unfortunately the referee that worked the Brook-Porter fight didn’t do anything to control the awful clinching from Brook.

I hope I’m wrong about Hearn trying to build interest in a Brook vs. Malignaggi fight next year in 2016, but I don’t see there being any reason for him putting Malignaggi on one of his fight cards if he’s not looking to match him against Brook. I mean, there’s no point in Hearn putting Malignaggi on his Joshua vs. Whyte card on December 12th so that he can eventually match Malignaggi against Matchroom Sport fighter Frankie Gavin, because there would be no interest in that fight in the British boxing public.

The only guy that makes sense for Hearn to put Malignaggi in with would be Brook. That would be so, so sad if it happens though, because Brook needs to be facing better opposition than he is.

Brook was supposed to be fighting #4 IBF Diego Chaves next, but a Brook injury wiped that fight out. The International Boxing Federation has reportedly ordered a fight between Brook and #5 IBF Kevin Bizier. That’s a fight that will likely happen next for Brook. If you’re not familiar with Bizier, then know that he’s a guy that was twice between by Jo Jo Dan. That kind of tells you all you need to know about Bizier.



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