The main event of Showtime’s Championship Boxing Broadcast between Adrien Broner (27-0, 1 NC, 22 knockouts) vs. Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 knockouts) could be called many things, but boring certainly isn’t one of them. In the bout’s build-up, many couldn’t help but buy into the relentless and scathing trash talk between the two fighters. As great as the confrontations outside of the ring were, was it possible that the actual fight would live up to the hype? After all, Paulie Malignaggi is widely regarded as one of the softest punchers in the game today, while Broner’s knockout ratio speaks for itself. It was enough of a concern to odds-makers that many had Malignaggi as a 15-1 underdog. In a rare instance, Malignaggi versus Broner delivered.
From the onset, it was no secret that Malignaggi’s only hope to win the fight was to outwork and outmaneuver Broner, and in the early rounds that’s exactly what Malignaggi did. Malignaggi remained relentless in his attack, while Broner was much more calculated and reserved in his offense. After winning the early rounds, Broner began to really turn it on against the Brooklyn native. While Malignaggi would build a healthy lead as far as punch output, Broner would respond with some stinging shots that would quickly erase all of Paulie’s work from the judges eyes.
Broner’s other brilliant tactic was often forcing Malignaggi along the ropes. Not only did it slow the much busier Malignaggi, but it left him open for a plethora of power shots that Broner seemed to land with ease. Still, Malignaggi managed to make it a fight, and that’s that could be said for most of Broner’s past opponents.
As the fight continued, it was easy to see that the punches were beginning to affect Pauli as they managed to land with increasing consistency. Still, Paulie’s heart speaks volumes as he managed to stay in front of Broner and trade shots the entire time.
After the 12-round affair the questions became, just how would the judges score the fight? Would they recognize Malignaggi’s punch output or reward Broner’s significant punches landed? This writer scored it 115-113 for Broner, but judging by the reactions both online and ringside the points range was all over the place. The judges score cards further proved this point after the split decision was announced in favor of Adrien Broner on scores of (115-113), (113-115), and (117-111).
The disparity in points one one of the judge’s cards left Malignaggi accusing Haymon of potentially paying a judge, but don’t let that take away from the fact that this fight turned out to be much more than anyone really expected. One can’t help but respect both fighters after a performance like this one. All one can do now is get excited at the thought of what’s next.
