By Ian S Palmer
American welterweight Paulie Malignaggi will defend his WBA championship belt against fellow countryman Adrien Broner of Cincinnati this Saturday June 22 in Malignaggi’s hometown of Brooklyn, New York. If the fight’s half as good as all of the trash talking that’s been going on between these two it should be quite a spectacle to see.
Malignaggi’s career was resurrected recently after it looked like he was in the twilight of it. He dropped three out of five contests between 2008 and 2010 when he was beaten by Amir Khan, Juan Diaz and Ricky Hatton and stopped in two of them. However, the 32-year-old champion’s now won five straight bouts since May 2010. He won his belt with a split decision over Pablo Cesar Cano and has a record of 32-4 with just 7 Kos.
The 23-year-old Broner is undefeated at 26-0 with 22 Kos and is already going after his third world championship in the past 19 months by moving into the welterweight division. The two boxers have been insulting each other at every possible opportunity during the buildup to the fight, but this rarely leads to fireworks in the ring once the bell rings. This may be especially true this weekend due to Malignaggi’s lack of power.
There’s no bout the champion has fine boxing skills, but he’s going to have a hard time keeping the hard-hitting Broner off of him if he can’t gain his respect with power. Broner’s also got above-par skills and a heavy punch to go along with it. He also has the faster hands, but is lacking a bit in experience. Malignaggi throws more punches, but usually gets hit with more than Broner does. He’s got a pretty good chin while Broner’s basically been untested in that department.
Malignaggi is the most effective when he’s using his gab and moving about the ring with his footwork. He needs to keep some distance between himself and Broner and use his mobility to stay out of trouble. Inevitably, he’s going to get hit hard at some point in this fight, but if he can avoid being tagged several times in a row he could survive. Broner’s not really a one-punch knockout artist and will need to nail the champ with combinations.
Malignaggi has to make sure he’s active during all three minutes of the rounds. This could see him win a few of them on points which could frustrate Broner while he looks for a knockout. Broner is usually patient though and doesn’t rush things. He’s won six consecutive fight by knockouts, but he’s never really gone out looking for one from the opening bell even though he has an 85 per cent knockout ratio. Malignaggi needs to throw as many punches as he can since Broner’s quite hard to hit.
Broner could be overrated at this point in his career and he’ll be moving up to the 147 lb division, which is new to him. He’s fast and powerful while Malignaggi’s just fast. Of course Broner has the edge here, but if Malignaggi can stay out of harm’s way he may have a better chance than many fans give him. His only hope is a 12-round decision and if he can get in and out it’s a possibility. Still, somewhere along the line Broner’s likely to catch up to him and make him pay the piper. Look for Broner to eventually stop him in the second half of the bout.
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