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Jeff Sorby: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) turns 32-years-old today, and he’s really interested to see what the outcome will be for this Saturday’s fight between Ricky Hatton and Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester, England.
Malignaggi has already given Hatton the green lightweight for a world title shot provided that Hatton beats Senchenko and the World Boxing Association responds by giving Hatton a top 15 ranking. That pretty much goes without saying because Senchenko already has a very generous #7 ranking by the WBA, and they’ll no doubt push Hatton up to somewhere in the top 15 if he beats Senchenko tomorrow night.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hatton get a top 10 ranking by the WBA if he wins tomorrow night. The sanctioning fees would be good with Hatton as the WBA champion if he were interested in holding onto the strap if he gets past Malignaggi.
Just to show you how eager Malignaggi is to get the Hatton fight, he’s already in England right now and attended the Hatton-Senchenko final press conference this week when Senchenko failed to show up. Malignaggi will obviously be at the fight, and likely hoping Hatton looks sensational in winning. Malignaggi has no interest in fighting Senchenko again, because he already gave him a bad thrashing last April in stopping him in the 9th round in Ukraine.
There’s no big money in Malignaggi fighting him again compared to the good payday that Malignaggi would get in facing Hatton in the UK in front of 20,000 Hatton fans at the Manchester Arena. I’m sure Malignaggi is licking his chops thinking about the cash he can get for the Hatton fight.
Malignaggi was already badly beaten by Hatton four years ago in an 11th round TKO loss in 2008. However, that was more or less a prime Hatton compared to where he’s at now after coming back from a 3 1/2 year retirement. Hatton might not be the same fighter that Malignaggi lost to in 2008, and that could give Malignaggi enough of a chance to beat Hatton this time. Whether he beats Hatton loses to him, Malignaggi will get good money fighting him and that’s why he’s so eager to find out what the Hatton-Senchenko outcome will be.
