By Ryan Burton
Former two-division champion Paulie Malignaggi has been an outspoken critic of Manny Pacquiao the past few years. He correctly predicted that Floyd Mayweather would defeat the Filipino on May 2nd when the top two fighters of this generation finally met in the ring.
Even with the criticism of the former eight-division champion, Malignaggi still believes that there are plenty of meaningful fights for Pacquiao.
"Manny can fight a lot of guys. At 140 pounds Top Rank has some good fighters - Terence Crawford, Jessie Vargas for example," Malignaggi told BoxingScene.com.
When I mentioned Argentine slugger Lucas Matthysse, who just defeated Ruslan Provodnikov in a twelve round war, Malignaggi said - "Matthysse would be dynamite. I think Manny can comeback with - I don't want to say a soft opponent but a pretty good fighter. A solid guy then move to one of those big fights."
In a recent BoxingScene article, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya made it clear that he wants to make a fight between Matthysse (37-3, 34KOs) and Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38KOs) in 2016, when the Filipino fighter returns fully healed from his recent right shoulder surgery.
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