Danny Garcia stops Malignaggi in ugly mismatch

By Boxing News - 08/01/2015 - Comments

5H6A1261(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) By Dan Ambrose: In a mismatch along the lines of the Rod Salka fight, former light welterweight champ Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) battered and beat a bloody over-the-hill 34-year-old Paulie Malignaggi (33-7, 7 KOs) by a 9th round TKO tonight on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

This fight was really sad to watch if you were a Malignaggi fan because he had absolutely nothing to keep Garcia off of him. Even when Malignaggi landed cleanly, he had no power to speak of and Garcia was able to just walk through the shots as if they were nothing.

Malignaggi was basically Salka 2.0 out there. The only improvements over Salka was Malignaggi had better defense, and this enabled him to make Garcia miss again and again with his big shots.

Malignaggi was cut over his right eye earlier in the fight from a punch in the 3rd. It wasn’t a bad cut, but it obviously made things a little tougher for Malignaggi.

In the 9th, Garcia hurt Malignaggi with a shot that had him staggering. Malignaggi was able to keep his footing and continue fighting, but the referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stepped in and stopped the fight anyway much to the displeasure of the crowd. The fight was stopped at 2:22 of the round.

The crowd booed long and hard, because they wanted the fight to continue until the bitter end. You can’t blame the fans, because they had paid money to see competitive fights, and they got mismatches on the card.

Besides the Garcia-Malignaggi fight, which was a total mismatch, the boxing fans had to see an even worse mismatch in the co-feature bout between WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (30-1, 27 KOs) and fringe contender Sergio Mora (28-4-2, 9 KOs).

That fight ended in the 2nd round with Mora suffering an ankle injury after he slipped on the canvas. The referee was missed the slip and ruled it a knockdown despite no punches landing. It was a terrible way for a fight to end, because it was just heating up after the 1st round in which both fighters hit the canvas. The fight was stopped at 2:55 of the round by referee Gary Rosato.

Malignaggi looked like an old fighter who was just trying to survive tonight. I don’t know where he goes from here. He probably won’t retire because he can still make money as opponents for guys in the PBC series, but at some point he’ll wear out his welcome. If Malignaggi can’t beat any of the guys he’s being matched against, then fans aren’t going to want to bother watching him fight on PBC. Malignaggi came into the fight having lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. He’s now lost 3 out of his last 4 fights.

It’s unknown what direction Garcia’s adviser Al Haymon will take him in for his next fight. He can’t keep putting him in with guys like Malignaggi and Salka if he wants people to believe in him. Haymon needs to put Garcia in with the top contenders in the division. I don’t think Floyd Mayweather Jr. is going to pick Garcia out for his final fight in 2016 if he continues to fight beyond his September 12th fight this year.

Haymon needs to match Garcia tough because he’s got to be able to beat guys like Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. and Amir Khan if he wants to be a major player in the division. Khan has been matched against weak opposition for the past three years since 2012. He shares the same adviser as Danny Garcia. You’d hate to see Garcia matched against Chris Algieri, Luis Callazo or Devon Alexander in his next fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that’s what happens.



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