Broner v Malignaggi tonight on Showtime from the Barclays Center

By Stevie Ocallaghan - 06/22/2013 - Comments

001BronerIMG_9973(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Stevie Ocallaghan: Tonight in Brooklyn, New York, Adrien Broner challenges Brooklyn’s own Pauli Malignaggi for his WBA welterweight belt. Probably the quietest thing about this matchup will be the actual fight itself. In saying that we have two technically gifted boxers facing each other.

I think this fight depends on Malignaggi. Can he keep up the pace and land quick combos while keeping his distance for the duration or have the legs two many miles on them and it’s just a matter of time before Broner catches up with him.

Broner at 23 years old and with an impressive 26-0 with 22 stoppages is the big favourite and you can understand why, but he does get hit. He gets compared to Floyd Mayweather, but with the exception of the Miguel Cotto fight in which I think Floyd wanted to give the fans real value for money, Floyd rarely gets caught flush, Broner will take punches.

In Broner’s last fight against Gavin Rees, Rees was catching him at will, but there was no venom in his work, Paulie is similar to Rees in the fact that he is a fast puncher but there is no power. Paulie for me is a larger version of Gavin Rees.

Malignaggi at 32 and with a record of 32-4 with 7 stoppages will try and outbox and stay out his way but like in the Rees fight, Broner eventually caught up with him and stopped him convincingly. Malignaggi has only had 7 stoppage wins and 3 of those where in his first 3 fights. I would be amazed if he stopped Broner, I just don’t see that happening.

I can see Broner coming on strong in the second half of the fight. Broner likes to conserve energy and sometimes that’s when he gets caught but I don’t think Paulie can hurt him. A late Broner stoppage for me. But in this game upsets can happen.



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