As Adrien "The Problem" Broner prepares to do battle with Marcos Maidana on Saturday, Paulie Malignaggi is angling to be the next man up for whichever fighter emerges victorious from that clash.
After beating Zab Judah this past Saturday, Malignaggi said he's in line for a big payday of a bout. "This big win puts me in the right spot to fight in the talented welterweight division," Malignaggi said after the fight. He immediately called out the winner of Broner-Maidana, but said if that isn't available he'd fight "whoever brings the most money."
Malignaggi has already faced Broner once before, losing a somewhat controversial decision to "The Problem" in June at the Barclays Center. Paulie pushed the pace in that matchup, and fought a volume fight trying to overwhelm the younger, stronger Broner with activity. Broner landed the cleaner, more powerful shots though and walked away with the split decision win.
It might not seem like Broner has much to gain from facing Malignaggi again, but he is trying to become a major pay-per-view star. If he gets past Maidana, a rematch with Malignaggi might attract a big PPV audience because of the nastiness that preceded their first match.
Prior to the June pairing, Broner and Malignaggi were involved in multiple verbal battles that centered on Broner's private meetings with an ex-girlfriend of Malignaggi's that spiraled into accusations by Broner that Paulie had hit the woman. After the fight had ended, Broner boasted, "I left with his belt, and his girl." Malignaggi railed against boxing politics, and claimed the judges were in the pocket of boxing bigwig Al Haymon; now Haymon has both Broner and Malignaggi in his stable.
Another possible opponent for either Malignaggi, or the Broner-Maidana winner is up-and-comer Shawn Porter, who took Amir Khan's place in front of Devon Alexander on Saturday's undercard. He took advantage of his opportunity, taking Alexander's IBF welterweight title and placing himself into the big-money picture.
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