By Rick Reeno
Kevin Cunningham, the manager/trainer of welterweight contender Devon Alexander (23-1, 13KOs), would love to see his fighter get matched with the new WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7KOs).
Both fighters are former junior welterweight champions, who are now finding success at 147-pounds. Alexander, scheduled to return on August 18th, moved up to welterweight in February and dominated Marcos Maidana over ten rounds. Malignaggi made the welterweight leap in December of 2010 and won four in a row, including last Sunday's title winning stoppage over previously undefeated Vyacheslav Senchenko.
"Devon has several options. Paulie has several options, but I think the fight that makes the most sense is Devon and Paulie. They have so much history, so much bad blood, so much sh*t talking history. And they both went out and won big fights, took care of business so I think the stage is set," Cunningham told BoxingScene.com.
Last year when Alexander signed with Golden Boy Promotions, Malignaggi made his presence felt at the press conference that Golden Boy held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Once the press conference started, it didn't take long before the two boxers were trading verbal jabs.
"Paulie showed up at our press conference when we signed with Golden Boy and was talking smack. He wanted to fight, we wanted to fight. The fight didn't happen. He went over and won a world title. Really I'm happy for him, but Paulie going over and winning a world title and Devon taking care of Maidana - is catapults both of these guys in a big fight against each other. Now with the WBA world title on the line, it makes it an even bigger fight. We don't have any problem with going to Brooklyn and giving Paulie a Brooklyn beatdown if that's what we've got to do," Cunningham said.
Malignaggi is scheduled to return on October 20th as part of Golden Boy's debut show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
