By Ryan Burton
Earlier today BoxingScene.com ran a story in which Devon Alexander's trainer and manager Kevin Cunningham announced that his fighter's split decision victory over Lucas Matthysse on Saturday would be his last fight at 140 pounds. Cunningham went on to say he would like his fighter to face former junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi who is 2-0 since making the move up to the welterweight division.
Malignaggi had been critical of Alexander's performance in his fight versus Tim Bradley this past January, claiming that the St. Louis native lacked the heart to continue after suffering numerous head butts.
Cunningham said that was reason enough for his fighter's first fight at welterweight to be against the outspoken Brooklynite.
BoxingScene caught up with Malignaggi who is vacationing in Italy to get his reaction to Cunningham's comments. Some fans and feel that Alexander's victories over Andriy Kotelnik and Lucas Matthysse were the result of home cooking since both fights were in Alexander's hometown. Malignaggi feels the same way.
"Wow. Strong words from a guy who's fighter lost his last three fights but since two of them were at home he got two gifts. He's got to be thankful that the Kotelnik and Matthysse fights were in St. Louis or he'd (Alexander) already be a club fighter by now," Malignaggi told Boxingscene.
Malignaggi said that he has been enjoying his vacation and has been resting his right hand which was injured in his unanimous decision victory over Jose Cotto this past April. He said he will speak to his promoter soon and that a fight against Alexander is something that he is interested in.
"I'm in Italy on vacation and my hand is still healing but I will be speaking with Golden Boy Promotions in the coming days about this. Obviously the three ass kickings he's gotten in the past year weren't enough and he wants more."
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