By Allan Fox: WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) could be facing 36-year-old former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi in March at the SSE Hydro, in Glasgow, Scotland. The fight is one of the two options for Burns. The other option a unification fight between Burns and IBF 140lb champion Julius Indongo (21-0, 11 KOs), who recently stopped champion Eduard Troyanovskiy in the 1st round to capture his IBF belt.
Burns will take the best paying fight of the two. Burns was supposed to be fighting former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner, but he decided to fight Adrian Granados in a fight in February.
It’s questionable whether Malignaggi can even get down to 140 to take the fight. Even if Malignaggi agrees to the title shot against Burns, can he make the weight? Maybe it won’t matter. The fight would still happen regardless of whether Malignaggi made weight or not. He would just not have the opportunity to have Burns’ WBA title on the line. What’s troubling is that Malignaggi hasn’t fought at light welterweight for six years since 2010.
If Malignaggi given a title shot in a weight class that he hasn’t fought in many years, then what kind of message does that send to the boxing fans and to the many top contenders in the WBA’s rankings? To be sure, it would be a voluntary defense for Burns and not another mandatory, but you would still like to see a champion at least fight a contender in one of the divisions if not his own.
Malignaggi (36-7, 7 KOs) isn’t ranked in the top 15 at light welterweight or in the welterweight divisions. The World Boxing Association would have to give the 33-year-old Burns permission to fight an unranked fighter unless they choose to give Malignaggi a ranking. It wouldn’t be the greatest of fights unless you’re a fan of fighters getting undeserved title shots.
Malignanggi hasn’t done anything to rate a world title shot other than beating 2nd tier fighters Gabriel Bracero, Antonio Moscatiello and Lazlo Frazekas in his last three fights. Those wins came AFTER Malignaggi had been beaten by Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Adrien Broner. Malignaggi’s career really tanked after he beat WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko n 2012 to capture his title in stopping him in the 9th. Malignaggi beat Pablo Cesar Cano by a questionable 12 round split decision in his first defense of his WBA title before losing to Broner in 2013 by a 12 round decision.
It’s hard to tell whether there would be much interest in a fight between Malignaggi and Burns in the U.S. If Showtime Boxing were interested in televising that fight, then it might be a bigger money fight for Burns than a fight against Indongo. Malignaggi would be a much more winnable fight for Burns than a match against the 5’10 ½” Indongo, who is fast, tall and powerful. Indongo is also a southpaw, and that would be a tough fight for Burns.
Unless there’s a lot of money in a fight against Indongo, Burns would be better off taking the Malignaggi fight. It would be safer. It wouldn’t show the boxing fans much as far as daring match-making, but it would likely extend the championship reign for Burns a little longer.
You can’t say that Burns has improved from the fighter that was beaten by Terence Crawford, Dejan Zlaticanin and Omar Figueroa Jr. What seems to have changed is the match-making that’s been done for Burns by his promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s put Burns in winnable situations by matching him against the following fighters in his last four fights: Prince Ofotsu, Josh King, Michele Di Rocco and Kiryl Relikh.
Burns won the vacant World Boxing Association World light welterweight title in beating Di Rocco by an 8th round knockout earlier this year in May. In Burns’ first defense of his IBF title, he defeated #1 Relikh by a 12 round unanimous decision last October. The IBF’s rankings have been a mixed bag in 2016. They had Relikh ranked #1, and before him they had Di Rocco as their No.1. Neither of those fighters looked like were good enough fighters to be ranked in the top 15, let alone in the No.1 spot.
It was Burns’ good luck that the IBF had those fighters ranked highly with their organization rather than guys that would potentially beat him like Rances Barthelemy, Amir Iman, Granados, Antonio Orozco and Frankie Gomez. Those are all good fighters, but the IBF had Di Rocco and Relikh ranked above those contenders at the No.1 at separate times in 2016.
Burns’ manager Alex Morrison said this to the Scotsman about his next fight:
“I spoke this morning with Ricky’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, who’s over at the WBC convention in Florida,” said Morrison. “He’s contacted the representatives of Malignaggi and Indongo and Ricky will take the fight which guarantees him the biggest purse during the first week in March.”
Getting a title shot at this stage in Malignaggi’s career would be seen as a second chance for him, as his career was seen as over and done with after his 4th round knockout loss to former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter in 2014, and his subsequent 9th round knockout defeat to Danny Garcia in August 2015. Those fights were both at welterweight.
Malignaggi was viewed by a lot of boxing fans as old news, and just someone playing out his string in the European circuit by winning the vacant EBU belt against Moscatiello last year in December. If Malignaggi can pull off a huge upset in beating Burns to become an improbable champion at age 36, it would be a huge comeback for him.