Malignaggi: Broner will have problems with my size

By Boxing News - 03/11/2013 - Comments

malignaggi231By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) thinks one of the problems that Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) will be having with him in their fight on June 22nd is Malignaggi’s heavier size compared to the lightweights that Broner has been fighting up until now. Malignaggi believes this is going to be just one area where he’ll have an edge over the 23-year-old Broner.

Malignaggi said to RingTV “I’m very confident in my ability to beat him [Broner]. I think there are weight classes for a reason. That’s one of the reasons why he’s going to have problems with me…I don’t think he’s been forced to think in there yet. He’s won based on talent alone…he’s going to have to think his way through.”

Malignaggi, 5’8 ½”, has an inch and a half height advantage over the 5’7” Broner, but Malignaggi’s giving up one inch in reach, so there’s really not much of a size advantage in this fight for Malignaggi. It’s not as if Malignaggi is going to tower over Broner on June 22nd and throw punches downhill at him. Both of them will likely be the same weight, and for Broner he probably won’t any heavier than 146 lbs. at the most.

Malignaggi does have a lot of ways to beat a fighter, but he’s going to need to use a lot of different tricks for him to win this fight. He can’t just jitter and shake for 12 rounds like he did against his last opponent Pablo Cesar Cano last October. That isn’t going to work. Malignaggi basically stood in front of Cano for most of the fight while shaking his upper body to give the impression of movement. Malignaggi wasn’t hard to hit, and he ended up getting dropped by Cano in the 11th.

Malignaggi used to be able to move for 12 rounds to avoid getting hit, but against Cano his legs were gone and he was stationary for much of the fight. Malignaggi’s main weapon in that fight was his jab, which is pretty much the case for his previous fight against Vyacheslav Senchnko in April of 2012.

Having a good jab is definitely a plus for Malignaggi, but he’s going to need more than that to beat Broner. Just jabbing him won’t get the job done. Brone will walk Malignaggi down and batter him unless he’s able to get Broner’s respect with some power shots.



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