Possibly sensing a tough sell ahead, Golden Boy has been working to fill out the undercard for their April 9th Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales pay per view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Joining the Maidana-Morales main event, the Robert Guerrero-Michael Katsidis co-feature, and a James Kirkland tune-up is the recently signed welterweight bout between former jr. welterweight champ, Paulie Malignaggi (28-4, 6 KOs) and former world title challenger, Jose Miguel Cotto (32-2-1, 24 KOs).
Cotto is the older brother of Miguel Cotto, who beat Malignaggi in a world title bout at the jr. welterweight limit in 2006. The 33-year old from Caguas, Puerto Rico is best known for his work at lightweight, but has been fighting at, or around, the welterweight limit since August of 2009, including a TKO 9 loss to Saul Alvarez last May on the Mayweather-Mosley undercard in a bout that saw Cotto stun the Mexican star in the first round.
This will be the second fight of Malignaggi’s welterweight campaign and also the second contest under his new promotional deal with Golden Boy. In his last bout, Malignaggi stopped Michael Lozada in six rounds on December’s Pascal-Hopkins undercard in Quebec City.
Also added to the non-televised portion of the event is a contest between undefeated 23-year old jr. welterweight prospect, Danny Garcia (20-0, 14 KOs) and the returning Nate Campbell (33-7-1, 25 KOs).
The 39-year old Campbell initially announced his retirement in November following a split decision loss to journeyman, Walter Estrada, but is now looking to make one more run at a world title.
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