By Michael Collins: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi will have to travel to Ukraine if he wants to fight for a title against WBA welterweight Vyacheslav Senchenko after Malignaiggi and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions lost the purse bid to Senchenko’s promotional team, who won with a winning bid of an unheard of $1 million.
Malignaggi was naturally bummed out about it because he probably doesn’t like the idea of having to travel all the way to Ukraine to fight for a title against Senchenko.
Malignaggi, 31, should consider himself lucky to be fighting for a title at all given competition he’s faced in the past three fights at welterweight. As far as I’m concerned, Malignaggi doesn’t deserve to be ranked #2 by the WBA. Malignaggi was beaten by Amir Khan in May 2010.
He then moved up in weight and beat the following three fighters to get pushed to the No.2 spot by the WBA: Michael Lozada, Jose Miguel Cotto and Orlando Lora. I’m sorry but that’s just enough in my mind for Malignaggi to be ranked #2 in the division. He should be happy he’s getting a title shot at all, even if it means that he’ll have to travel all the way to Ukraine to get the fight.
I think Malignaggi will lose badly to Senchenko in Ukraine, U.S or anywhere in the World for that matter. I’m not high on Senchenko, but I do think he’s a legitimate welterweight with some decent skills. He’s a skinny underpowered light welterweight like Malignaggi. I see Senchenko beating Malignaggi fairly easily by a lopsided 12 round decision. Malignaggi would have a chance in this fight if he could punch his way out of a wet paper bag but he can’t. Senchenko will jab his ears off in this fight. As of now there isn’t a date for the fight or a specific venue.