Quillin-N’Dam & Malignaggi-Cano on Garcia vs. Morales II undercard on Saturday

By Boxing News - 10/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Quillin-N'Dam & Malignaggi-Cano on Garcia vs. Morales II undercard on Saturday(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Jason Kim: Unbeaten middleweight contender Peter Quillin (27-0, 20 KO’s) will be facing WBO middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (27-0, 17 KO’s) and WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi 31-4, 7 KO’s) will be defending his title against #10 WBA Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19 KO’s) on the Erik Morales vs. Danny Garcia II fight card on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight will be televised by Showtime in the United States.

This will be a good chance to see what the 29-year-old Quillin is all about because he’s been matched pretty carefully most of his seven year pro career and hasn’t faced anyone that you could really call a good fighter. He’s good power, but he’s been matched with care, keeping him away from the biggest threats in the division.

N’Dam, 28, could be a problem for Quillin because he knows how to box well, and he moves around the ring like a young version of Floyd Mayweather Jr, which is what one gets a sense of when watching N’Dam fight. He doesn’t have the stamina, fast hands, and great defense that Mayweather has but he’s still a very good fighter. I rate N’Dam as a clear step up for Quillin and it’s going to be interesting to see what he can do with him.

The Malignaggi-Cano fight is a little more clear in picking a winner. Malignaggi, 31, is a lot more experienced than the 23-year-old Cano, and he’s got the benefit of having a good blueprint to follow in how to beat Cano. Erik Morales has to learn the hard way how to beat Cano by jabbing him into submission in a fight where he took a lot of punishment. Morales tried fighting with Cano, he paid the price for doing so by getting hit a lot and winding up with bad swelling around both of his own eyes. However, Cano took a far worse beating and the fight had to be halted.

Malignaggi should be able to win this fight against Cano by staying busy with his jab and avoiding trading shots with him. Cano is clearly the better puncher and is more at home in a slug-fest than Malignaggi. That’s the only way he’ll win this fight is if he can beat Malignaggi in a war.

Also on the card will be IBF welterweight champion Randall Bailey defending his title against former light welterweight champion Devon Alexander in a fight that I’m hoping won’t be anything like Alexander’s last fight against Marcos Maidana earlier this year. That fight was nearly unwatchable due to Alexander’s clinching 10+ times per round. If there was ever a fight where a fighter should have lost points and been disqualified for clinching it was that one.



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