Paulie Malignaggi confirms Shane Mosley talks: 'Seems like that's the plan'

Paulie Malignaggi tells Lem Satterfield at The RING that Shane Mosley is, indeed, his likely next opponent, but the WBA welterweight titlist doesn't come off as particularly thrilled about a potential matchup that has drawn serious criticism from fans on social media, as well as here on BLH.

Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO) says that when he first heard about the Devon Alexander-Kell Brook fight being postponed, he tried to move in and get a fight with Alexander. But that fight is being rescheduled, so Malignaggi and Mosley is likely for April 27 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

"Seems like that's the plan. I inquired about Alexander as soon as I heard about Brook pulling out, but they said it couldn't be made and that fight would just get rescheduled. Looks like Mosley for now. No done deal yet though."

Malignaggi doesn't exactly sound like he's itching for this fight, and an attempt to face Alexander instead seems to indicate that Paulie knows exactly what this fight is, and is likely prepared for the backlash that will come if and when it is made official.

Mosley (46-8-3, 39 KO) hasn't actually won a fight in four years, and his last four outings have all resulted in boring contests, too, each drawing pretty harsh criticism, and all of it deserved. His performances have been lackluster and he's clearly no longer a serious contender at 147 or 154 pounds.

Most likely, if the fight is made, it will wind up on Showtime, and that will also be deserving of criticism should it come to pass. If Golden Boy were to try and put on a pay-per-view (unlikely on April 27, since that's the Saturday before they'll be offering Floyd Mayweather on PPV), that would be their business; they could watch it tank. But Showtime enabling this sort of awful matchmaking would lend some legitimacy to claims by rival promoters who feel as though Showtime has become (or will become) nothing more than a Golden Boy network that will approve anything sent to them by Schaefer, Oscar & Co.

You might recall that the last time Shane Mosley was involved in a Showtime main event, he faced Manny Pacquiao in a fight nobody asked for, with CBS sending some of its talent to the pay-per-view to help make it a bigger event on TV. James Brown, the veteran sportscaster, wound up so appalled by the Pacquiao-Mosley non-event -- and the fact that fans had spent a lot of money to watch it -- that at the end of the show, he all but apologized for even associating himself with the show, or even with the sport.

James Brown doesn't work in boxing and was able to do that because it was the truth, and he didn't have to fear for his job. No matter how bad Mosley's next Showtime appearance might be, don't expect any of that, even if it would be an honest assessment, as it was the last time.

There's a lot of things to think about here. I don't see any way this can be argued as a good fight by anyone who isn't searching for a way to make an excuse for it -- it's not relevant, it has no business being a world title fight, Mosley has not just lost for the last three years, but he's also done so in dull fights, and there's nobody asking to see this fight. It makes everyone involved look bad, from any network that buys it, to the promoter who wants to grind what little juice there is left in Mosley right out of his body, to Malignaggi for taking this as a world title defense, to the WBA for sanctioning it.

If it happens. As Malignaggi says, there's no done deal. Hopefully, there won't be one.