Last Saturday Paulie Malignaggi shocked the boxing world when he faced off against Adrien Broner in a fight that many felt Broner would dominate and eventually KO Malignaggi. Malignaggi had other plans. Malignaggi was the busier of the two fighters, out landing his opponent but losing rounds to his opponents eye catching pot shots. “It was a competitive fight. People got their money’s worth,” said Malignaggi who attacked Broner’s body for a majority of the fight. “Body shots are body shots. You are pot shoting here and there. You do not win a world title like that.”
The fight indeed was close but Malignaggi feels that he was jobbed and to make things even worse it happened to him in front of his hometown crowd. “I think you got to take the title from the champion especially if the champion is in his hometown. I am not going to take total credit away from him but enough people felt that I won the fight to warrant a rematch. You might as well do the rematch and right the wrong.”
Broner is known for imitating Floyd Mayweather inside and outside the ring and one act Malignaggi would love for Broner to imitate is what Floyd did after the first controversial fight with Jose Luis Castillo and have a rematch to clear the air within the same year. “Come out and beat me decisively,” said Malignaggi.
The biggest upset of the night was Broner being unable to KO his opponent who has proven that he has a great chin. At the lower weight classes Broner’s power seemed to be too much for his opposition but would he be able to carry the power up in weight? At the weigh in Broner’s physique surprised many as he did not seem as ripped as he usually does. If he had power than Malignaggi did not feel it or respect it. “Adrien Broner does not have punching power. I stood in front of him the entire fight. There was a reason during the fight I was willing to take one to throw five or six. I couldn’t do that to Miguel Cotto. I could not do that when I fought him. If you hit too hard I can’t make that trade off. I am going to be busier than him. I understand what he did was skill. Some of it looked good but at the day’s end he does not hit hard and he is not very busy.”
According to Malignaggi, this marks the second time that Broner has stepped up to top tier competition and the fight ended with the same result, a controversial one. “One thing you gotta keep in mind about Adrien Broner: He has stepped up two times and both times they have been controversial wins. Most of the guys on his record anyone can beat them. Paulie Malignaggi and (Daniel) Ponce De Leon, those two wins are kind of controversial. What does that tell you? That tells you ‘hey man when you put this guy up against good opposition, he is not as good as everybody makes him out to be.'”
Broner says that he can fight at 135, 140 and 147 pounds but the likelihood of him fighting legit competition at 135 pounds is slim as a majority of the fighters are with rival Top Rank. “There are some strong guys at 140, 147 that I don’t know if he’d be suited against but then again he is hard to hit so you have to be crafty to hit him. He is always going to be a target in front of you,” said Malignaggi about Broner.
A rematch might not be what the boxing world wants but with these two fighters it would remain controversial from beginning to end.
