Adrien Broner vs Paulie Malignaggi Review

By Peter Wells (twitter @boxingbrains):

Last Saturday night, the controversial Adrien Broner took another small step towards filling the potential that his trash-talk has promised. A tough-to-score fight ended in fittingly controversial fashion, as fans were split on who should have been given the nod.

Broner threw less but his accuracy was hard to ignore, while the former WBA Welterweight champion, Paulie Malignaggi threw punches like they were going out of fashion, yet his work rate didn't result in shots landing all that often.

The man who dons himself 'The Problem' was awarded victory via a split decision verdict. Judges scored the bout 115-113 to Paulie and 115-113 & 117-111 in favour of Broner.

For this particular fight, Adrien Broner took with him his controversial antics. After Paulie lifted his leg up, it appeared that Broner kicked out at the champion. More followed as referee Benjy
Esteves Jr struggled to control the Cincinnati man. Esteves had every right to deduct a point from Broner who at one instance while breaking from a clinch threw punches from over his own head at Paulie.

Between the odd moments in the fight, the pace was moving swiftly as Paulie circled the ring before firing combinations to the body. While all the shots early to the torso were blocked, Broner's lack of punch output meant that Paulie was ahead in most people's eyes at the halfway stage.

In the second half of the fight, Paulie began to slow. His legs weren't moving at the same rate and Adrien Broner was visibly closing the gap. Even so Paulie adjusted, and sacrificed his movement in order to win rounds by outworking the challenger. Despite that the heavier punches of Broner were taking their toll and the fight was tilting in Broner's favour.

Questions raised by Broner not finding a stoppage seemed harsh when considering that Miguel Cotto failed to halt the Brooklynite. Broner's punches still carried the snap to momentarily halt Paulie when he came forward, but Malignaggi's chin proved once again hard to dent.

The final result seemed fair, and Paulie's rant at the end about the decision being fixed were an over-reaction. Adrien Broner's after fight comments lacked class too, so maybe both fighters should take a few lessons from Austin Trout on how to conduct yourself after winning or losing.

Now it is the time for some to admit that maybe Adrien Broner - 27-0(22) - is a very good fighter, who will be near, if not at, the top for some time. While there are clear flaws, at 23, Adrien has time on his side to make corrections.

As for Paulie Malignaggi, now 32-5(7), the gates are still open for fights in a jam-packed Welterweight division. Match-ups with Andre Berto, Robert Guerrero, Devon Alexander, etc all make sense. Although there is a possibility that the new generation, Mike Jones, Brad Solomon, Frankie Gomez, will be intrigued with the idea of testing themselves against a fighter like Paulie.