By Dominic Sauboorah: Newly crowned WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s) beat Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO’s) by a split decision last night at the Barclays Centre, Brooklyn, New York. It was dramatic before the fight, during the fight and after the fight and was an event that will be highlighted majorly this year in the boxing calendar.
The fight was extremely interesting as Malignaggi attacked the body a lot and who could blame him as he was able to land with ease when he threw his combinations. Broner’s wide stance made it possible for Malignaggi to land shots; however the more meaningful blows I believe came from Broner who tagged Paulie with some clean shots. Broner is now a three time, three weight world champion yet, in this fight, he appeared to be exposed a little bit.
Adrien’s work rate at times was exceptionally low, thereby allowing Paulie to get off with his shots first a lot of the time. Despite his show acting, giving the impression that he was in cruise control, he wasn’t as Paulie was still in there throwing shots. His power at the 147 lb. weight limit has to come into question as well, considering that he tagged Malignaggi with many shots to the chin yet didn’t look likely to get Paulie out of there; however Hatton and Khan were able to stun Malignaggi many times.
Finally his defence and lateral foot movement can’t be compared to Floyd Mayweather’s and this is proven considering that after the fight Mayweather criticized Broner for being too flat footed. His use of the shoulder roll was somewhat nonchalant and was willing to stand in the pocket and take body shot after body shot from Malignaggi. I doubt they were having much of an affect on him but at the end of the day they are scoring blows and in a world championship fight you can’t afford to be giving away shots like that.
Broner managed to get the job done so he has to be respected for that; however his inability to protect his mid rift and his lack of power may then lead people to question as to how good he really is. I think Paulie proved a few points from this fight and how Broner is nothing but talent which I do agree with, considering that he was more concerned with hurting Paulie rather than boxing him and sticking to the game plan.
Broner’s been blasting guys out around the 135 weight class, which is fair enough, but other welterweight contenders and champions will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing Broner who clearly doesn’t have the defensive skills of Floyd Mayweather and also lacks in the power to trouble most of the top 147 lb. fighters. Pablo Cesar Cano managed to drop Malignaggi with one straight right hand to the chin; Broner hit Malignaggi with countless right hands yet couldn’t do the same. That in itself speaks volumes. Broner is talented for sure but needs to learn from this fight big time or else he will get exposed by one of the more proven champions.
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