Malignaggi-Cano: Another GBP fighter facing a smaller guy

By Boxing News - 07/31/2012 - Comments

Image: Malignaggi-Cano: Another GBP fighter facing a smaller guyBy Dan Ambrose: I’m more than a little disappointed after learning that WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) will be defending his title for the first time on October 20th not against a welterweight but against a light welterweight in Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19 KO’s) at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.

I expected Malignaggi to milk his title for at least a couple of fights, but I figured he’d at least fight someone from his own weight class so that an actual welterweight contender could get a shot against him. But that’s not going to happen. Malignaggi will be fighting a 140 pound contender, and not a 147 pounder. This is just wrong on so many levels. If you think about all the contenders in the welterweight division that have worked hard to try and get a title shot and here Malignaggi is skipping over all of them handpicking someone from a division below him to fight. That shouldn’t be allowed in the sport, because it’s not fair to the contenders.

Malignaggi is a Golden Boy Promotions fighter and it looks they don’t have any problems with matching their champions against guys from divisions below them. On September 15th, we’ve got WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez fighting a light welterweight in Josesito Lopez. This guy isn’t just one division below Alvarez’s weight division, he’s two divisions below. That’s wrong. How about Golden Boy letting an actual 154 pound contender get a shot at Alvarez’s strap instead of a 140 pounder.

Cano was battered and stopped last year by Erik Morales last September. I can’t say I was impressed with Cano at all. He looked like a good bottom 15 fighter but no better. He’s not world champion material in my view, and I think he’s the last fighter I would pick to fight for a welterweight title unless objective was to find an easy mark for Malignaggi. I had high hopes for Golden Boy Promotions when they came on the scene. I thought they were going to be something different but this kind of thing with matching champions against guy from divisions below them is really off putting.



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