Malignaggi on Lomachenko at 130lbs
by Yamanaka: Paulie Malignaggi
Paulie Malignaggi's take on Vasiliy Lomachenko is that 135 was never the right fit. Undersized the whole time at lightweight, in his view, and the move up was mainly about testing himself against bigger guys. Even giving away size, Lomachenko still nearly unified the division. Now a return to 130lbs is being discussed with O'Shaquie Foster as the target, and Malignaggi thinks that could be the weight where Lomachenko actually fits. So can he still hang with the top guys at 130lbs, or has age caught up with him?
Transcript (en)
At 135, he was always undersized at 135. It's almost like he went to 135 because it was unfair that he kept beating up all the 130-pounders so easily. So he went just for the – it's almost – it felt like as if he went to 135 just for the competition because he could have easily unified the 130-pound division back then. You know, aside from the fact that Javon Davis had wanted nothing to do with him. But aside from that, he would have easily cleaned out the 130-pound division. But instead, he went to 135. I couldn't understand why just to challenge himself for bigger – you know, search for bigger pastures. and almost unified that weight class despite being super small in every fight in that weight class. So I don't think this is a traditional quote-unquote going down in weight at a higher age like it could be for certain other guys who try to accomplish this feat. This guy was always kind of small, so he's just basically going to go to a weight where he should have been fighting the whole time.
