By Jim Dower: Former International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) revived his sagging career with a 12 round unanimous decision over former IBF/WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s) at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois. The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 116-111. Malignaggi refused to get caught up in any war with Diaz on the inside, and instead boxed beautifully on the outside, hitting Diaz and moving away before the shorter fighter could land his shots.

However, despite being dominated by the bigger Malignaggi for most of the fight, Diaz never stopped coming forward trying to land and by the end of the fight, Diaz seemed to be wearing Malignaggi down somewhat. By then, however, Malignaggi had an insurmountable lead and it would have needed a knockout by Diaz for him to win the fight.

In winning the fight, Malignaggi got his revenge for his controversial 12 round decision loss four months earlier in August. In that fight, fought in Diaz’s home city of Houston, Texas, Malignaggi appeared to do more than enough to win the fight by two or three rounds. However, the judges gave the bout to Diaz, scoring the fight 118-110, 115-113 and 116-112 for Diaz.

Thankfully, on Saturday night there wasn’t any controversy this time, as Malignaggi appeared to be the clear winner of the fight and it seemed beyond question this time. Diaz, 5’6″, looked too small compared to the 5’8″ Malignaggi, and his lack of size seemed to really hurt Diaz in this fight. It wasn’t just his height problem. Diaz just looked smaller with his frame and appeared to not even belong in the same ring with the bigger Malignaggi.

Judging by the loose fat that have settled around the sides of Diaz, he could probably easily move back down to the lightweight division if he were to trim the fat off. Even better would be for Diaz to trim off even more fat and move down to the super featherweight division where he would have a great chance of dominating. Diaz carries around a little bit too much midsection fat and looks as if he could stand to lose an extra 20 pounds of fat to get down to the super featherweight or even featherweight divisions.

Malignaggi boxed from the outside in rounds one and two, hitting Diaz and moving out of the way before he could fire back with his own shots. Diaz was cut over the left eye in the 2nd round due to a head butt.

In rounds three and four, Malignaggi continued to hit and run, landing fast punches and then running away before Diaz could make his way on the inside to land his own punches. It looked too easy for Malignaggi, because Diaz didn’t seem to be fighting as hard as he was in the first fight.

In the 5th round, Diaz successfully was able to get inside on Malignaggi and hit him with some powerful combinations. Diaz looked great when Malignaggi stood his ground and tried to fight it out. If Malignaggi had fought that way all night long, there’s little question that Diaz would have won every round and possibly would have stopped him in the process. However, Malignaggi wasn’t going to fight like that because he was so much more effective when he was hitting on the run.

In rounds six through ten, Malignaggi seemed to get better and better, landing more and more shots as Diaz seemed to become frustrated. Diaz looked uncomfortable fighting outside of Houston, where the crowd tends to amp him up a lot with their constant applause. On Saturday night, it was Malignaggi who was the one that was getting the applause and Diaz seemed uncomfortable with it. In the 10th round, Diaz charged after Malignaggi was was caught by a cuffing right hand that knocked Diaz off balance and caused his left glove to graze the canvas. The referee then ruled it a knockdown, much to the disappointment of Diaz, who briefly tried to protest the ruling.

In the 11th and 12th rounds, Diaz gamely went after Malignaggi, trying to score a knockout or knockdown. It wasn’t to be, however, as Malignaggi continued to move and continued to land often. I had Diaz winning the last two rounds to his better shots and his constant pressure, but they were both close rounds and could have gone either way.

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Light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (25-2-1, 20 KO’s) got back on the winning track with a 6th round stoppage win over Antonio Diaz (46-6-1, 29 KO’s). The bout was stopped in between the 6th and 7th rounds due to a cut over the left eye of Diaz. in the 3rd round, Ortiz dropped Diaz with a straight left to the head. Other than that, Ortiz moved constantly, focusing more on boxing than he did previously in the past and trying not to get hit. Ortiz was stopped in the 6th round in his previous bout against Marcos Maidana in June, and it looks as if that lost had a huge impact on Ortiz making him want to box more. Despite his near constant movement, Ortiz was still very hittable at all times and looked as if he still has a lot of work to do on his defense before he’s ready for the likes of Maidana – or another similar slugger – again.

In rounds one through five, Ortiz used his jab and straight left hand to do most of the damage. Ortiz circled constantly, coming in and out and trying to avoid getting hit.

Other boxing results on the card:

Erislandy Lara W 10 Luciano Perez
Ronald Hearns TKO 6 Shadrack Kipruto
Hylon Williams Jr. W 8 Humberto Tapia
Argenis Mendez W 8 Morris Chule
Randall Bailey W8 Germaine Sanders
Dominick Guinn W 6 Charles Davis