By Chris Williams: For the second consecutive fight, IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs) won by a controversial decision, in this case a 12-round split decision victory over Lovemore N’dou (46-10-1, 31 KOs) tonight at the Manchester Stadium, in England. The final judges’ scores were 114-115, for Ndou, and 116-113 & 116-113. I personally had N’dou winning 115-114, though I gave Malignaggi credit for a couple of close rounds that I normally wouldn’t have otherwise, but figured that the judges would give him the nod in these rounds due to upcoming showdown between him and Ricky Hatton.
However, Malignaggi didn’t come close to winning the fight, as far as I’m concerned and appeared to receive another gift decision. All in all, he fought poorly for most of the fight, battling problems with his long hair, which was in his eyes constantly during the first half of the fight, and clinching often in the second half of the bout.. The clinching, quite excessive and extremely annoying, seemed to take away from the fight, as it kept N’dou from getting his punches off. It wasn’t as if Malignaggi was landing anything himself, other than an occasional jab, yet he continued to clinch over and over again for the final six rounds.
I was frankly astonished that the referee Mickey Vann didn’t penalize him for this, but then again, Manchester is a place where pretty much anything goes in terms of rough stuff, so this was more par for the course. I have no idea why Malignaggi came into such as important fight as this with such long, which was braided at the start of the fight. It seemed like an insane idea, a fashion statement gone wrong. Almost immediately, his hair came unbraided in the 1st round, allowing N’dou to clock him with a series of right hands due to Malignaggi’s hair obscuring his vision. Though his hair was once again tied back up, it would later come undone again and once again get back into his face.
Indeed, it would be major problem for him until his corner finally cut it in between the 8th and 9th rounds. By then, Malignaggi was well behind on my card and looking completely out of it. Both his head movement and his foot speed were largely missing, as he seemed to have lost a lot of his movement since his last fight. I though perhaps Malignaggi was doing this to try and make a statement, hoping to impress the fans by slugging more with N’dou. However, as the fight progressed, it was obvious that Malignaggi simply couldn’t move like he used to in previous bouts.
As a result, N’dou was able to land big shots in every round. He wasn’t, however, able to match Malignaggi’s punch output, but his shots were much bigger. Hence in a lot of the close rounds, in which Malignaggi had a small advantage in punches landed, I gave the rounds to N’dou due to his much more powerful shots. For the most part, Malignaggi did little other than bending forward, throwing weak jabs and an occasional flurry, most of which either missed or was blocked by N’dou. Like I said, I wasn’t surprised that Malignaggi got the decision, because there was no way, short of a knockout, that N’dou would have been given the decision tonight.
You got to feel for the guy, because he clearly won the fight but ended up getting the business instead. I suppose the Hatton-Malignaggi fight is the most important thing that came out of the fight, but it means little considering that this was the second fight that Malignaggi won that he didn’t deserve to win. I see Hatton having no problem beating him, as I do many other light welterweight champions and contenders. I just hope for Hatton’s sake that he knocks him out, because if he doesn’t, who knows what will happen.
In the 1st round, Malignaggi came strutting out with his hair, shoulder length, tied in French braids and looking nothing like a professional boxer. Judging by the length of his hair, I saw almost immediately it was going to be a factor in the fight. I couldn’t understand how his trainer, Buddy McGirt, had allowed him to come into the fight with hair that length. I guess Malignaggi had felt strongly about it, otherwise I see no trainer that would permit such a foolish move by a professional boxer. A minute into the round, Malignaggi’s hair came loose from the rubber band that held it together behind his head, causing it to flop into his face in a huge mass of tangled hair.
With Malignaggi unable to see, N’dou didn’t waste the opportunity and began to tag him with huge shots repeatedly. Malignaggi, usually a hit and run type fighter, began fighting for his life, throwing flurries and landing well. He looked slower, slightly more bulky than he had been in his past fights. It’s unclear whether he had been hitting the weights or perhaps no doing enough running, but whatever case, his speed was much slower than it had been in the past and he looked almost muscle bound. For the remainder of the round, Malignaggi struggled with his hair, constantly trying to push it out of his eyes.
In the 2nd round, with his hair now tied behind his head, Malignaggi came back with an impressive round as he landed quick flurries and kept the slower, older N’dou from getting his shots off. It was perhaps Malignaggi’s best round of the fight, with his looking strong, if not slower, than he had in the past.
In the 3rd round, referee Mickey Vann missed a clear knockdown of Malignaggi in which he was clubbed with a big right hand to the top of his head by N’dou, causing Malignaggi to fall forward and touch both gloves to the canvas to prevent from falling. It was a terrible miss by Vann, who should have been watching the action more closely, for it was a clear knockdown that most everyone, other than Vann, had seen. Malignaggi did little in the round, mostly throwing weak jabs and missing with his flashy flurries. The round belonged to N’dou, who landed some huge shots with both hands, backing Malignaggi up constantly and causing him to clinch often.
N’dou would continue to control the fight in rounds four and five, landing big shots to the head of Malignaggi. The hair became a problem again in the 4th, coming undone and flopping in Malignaggi’s face much of the time. N’dou landed some huge left hands in the 5th round, driving Malignaggi to the ropes. After tasting the lefts, Malignaggi would spend the remainder of the round moving around the ring and avoiding contact. It was Malignaggi at his worst, running and stinking up the joint. The British fans, accustomed to fighters that actually mix it up, hated Malignaggi’s style of fighting, and booed him loudly. N’dou was cut over his left eye in the 5th, but it wasn’t a bad cut.
Malignaggi came back to win the 6th round, landing shots and then quickly grabbing a hold of N’dou to keep him from getting his own shots off. Much of his punches were at close range, while holding onto N’dou with one hand and pounding him with his free hand. It was another round with a slew of clinches initiated by Malignaggi, and just plain awful to watch. Most American referees would have likely penalized Malignaggi long before this for his excessive holding, but as I mentioned before, being that this was in Manchester, everything was fair game. It’s too bad that N’dou didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve, like maybe some elbows, forearms or lowblows, because he would have done well and maybe gotten the nod. Then again, I doubt it, nothing was going to stop Malignaggi from getting this decision tonight.
In rounds seven though nine, N’dou appeared to dominate the action with his much bigger shots. It was made easier for him due to Malignaggi’s hair constantly getting into his face and once again blocking his vision. Malignaggi tried to bounce on his toes in the 7th, but looked slow and heavy, and only succeeded in getting hit with some big lefts by N’dou. Late in the round, Malignaggi seemed to be stunned by a big right hand from N’dou, and immediately grabbed him to prevent him from landing any further shots.
Malignaggi’s hair became a problem again in the 8th, coming undone yet again and flopping into his face. Referee Mickey Vann did something unheard of, stopping the action to allow Malignaggi’s corner to tie up his hair. Vann even helped himself, looking a little annoyed as he helped the rubber band be placed on the mop. The audience, of course, hated it and booed like crazy while this was happening. N’dou finished the round strong, landing a series of huge left hands while Malignaggi ran around the ring doing little.
In between rounds, Malignaggi’s corner finally wised up and got the unruly mop of hair, and he immediately looked 100% better. It didn’t help his performance in the 9th, however, as N’dou landed some huge left hooks to the head and had Malignaggi once again on the run.
Malinaggi came back well in the 10th and 11th rounds, using the John Ruiz style of fighting, involving hitting, then immediately clinching to prevent N’dou from punching back. When Malignaggi wasn’t doing this, he was wrestling on the inside, slowing the fight down to a crawl and making it difficult for either fighter to land. Given his better work on the outside, I gave both rounds to Malignaggi.
The 12th round was all N’dou, as he came out putting everything he had in every shot, trying to take Malignaggi’s head off. For his part, Malignaggi mostly wrestled, held and ran, trying to run out the clock. He threw few shots and looked to have given the round away as if he felt he was ahead in the fight. Not sure why he would think that, considering that he had done little in most of the other rounds.