Uppercut Magazine.com - Malignaggi in Ukraine

By David A. Avila


Usually Paul “Magic Man” Malignaggi has his head tilted downward as he types or looks at tweets on his cell phone.

The Brooklyn speedster is notorious for his Twitter activity.

Like most Italians or Italian-Americans, the former junior welterweight world champion has good manners and treats most people with a classiness that’s not common. However, an act of rudeness hurled in his direction incites that Brooklyn attitude and the flaming words shoot out like one of his speedy combinations.

Can you imagine Malignaggi in a war of words? He talks as fast as he punches and that’s Tommy Gun speed.

Brooklyn’s Paul “Magic Man” Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KOs) will be fighting in the Ukraine on Sunday April 29 against WBA welterweight titleholder Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KOs). It will be televised on pay-per-view.

It’s not an easy fight.

The Sunday morning fight will be televised on pay-per-view at 10 a.m. Malignaggi, a former junior welterweight world champion, is making his first attempt to win in the heavier welterweight division.

Everything was running smoothly while training at the Wild Card Gym with his trainer Eric Brown when he spotted his next opponent Senchenko. Freddie Roach was helping the Ukrainian prepare for Malignaggi.

Malignaggi packed his bags and trained in New York City for a brief spell, then packed his suitcases again and headed for Italy for the remainder of his training.

When his promoter Golden Boy Promotions offered the fight Malignaggi asked that it be held in a neutral territory like United Kingdom. Though it was a fair request, Senchenko’s people balked at the idea. Malignaggi wanted a fair shake at the title so when his promoter said it would be televised on pay-per-view, that was the clincher.

“Now everybody can see it,” said Malignaggi.

Senchenko won the world title three years ago against Yuriy Nuzhnenko by unanimous decision. Since that time he’s defended it three times with wins by decision over fighters named Motoki Sasaki, Charlie Navarro and a stoppage of Marco Avendano. None are household names in this country or probably their own countries.

Malignaggi has only lost to fighters who were deemed pound for pound champions. Regular champions are not a problem for the New Yorker.

“I’ve seen some video on him and he’s a typical east  European boxer. A good jab, a technical fighter with a good style, but nothing spectacular,” assesses Malignaggi about the Ukrainian champion. “I just don’t think he’s ever been forced to adapt. Everyone he went in against before, they kind of knew what he was going to do but they never forced him to go to a plan B. We’re going to see what kind of ability he has to adjust.”

PAY-PER-VIEW INFORMATION: distributed in the United States by Integrated Sports Media for live viewing at 1:00 PM/ET - 10:00 AM/PT on both cable and satellite pay-per-view via iN Demand, DIRECTV, DISH Network and Avail-TVNfor a suggested retail price of only $29.95.  also available via on-line PPV at www.gofightlive.tv.