Rumours have been rife that Broner, 23, and 32 year-old Malignaagi could face each other in Abu Dhabi on May 18 after the latter accepted an invitiation from SSE to make his next defence on a huge card at the Zayed Sports Complex.
SSE has now categorically denied the speculation in recent dialogue with World Boxing News and the smart money would now be on Broner and Malignaggi happening in the United States on June 22,
The original purse bid between Malignaggi and his WBA mandatory challenger Diego Chaves, who was originally sought for the Abu Dhabi date, is set to conclude tomorrow and may mean that the fight can be officially announced later this week,
“Over the past week or so there has been a lot of speculation that we are behind an offer to Adrien Broner to fight Paulie Malignaggi in Abu Dhabi,” SSE’s Gianluca Di Caro told World Boxing News.
”I can categorically say that at no time have Showtime Sports Events (SSE) made any approach to Adrien Broner’s management or Golden Boy Promotions to try and make this fight.
”Adrien Broner’s lawyer Al Haymon and Paulie Malignaggi’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions, along with David Itskowitz are fully aware that we are extremely keen to have Paulie headline our first Abu Dhabi event.
”However there is one major obstacle, the WBA ordered a purse bid for Malignaggi-Chaves, after negotiations between SSE and Diego Chaves’ promoter Osvaldo Rivero were terminated on February 24th.
”The purse bid takes place at the WBA offices in Panama tomorrow, Monday 11th March.
”Until this has taken place, and a purse winner announced, even the possibility of Paulie being one of our headline fighters, or fighting anyone other than Diego Chaves is pure speculation,” he added.
