Malignaggi Takes Broner’s Best, Loses Split Decision; Mitchell Beats Listless Banks

BROOKLYN, NY — Adrien Broner is no Floyd Mayweather. You should have known that before last night. But if there was any doubt, that was erased in witnessing Broner’s “welterweight debut” against Paulie Malignaggi at the Barclays Center. What was supposed to be a great setup for Broner to look spectacular ended up being a fun scrap where Malignaggi, obviously diminished in essential areas of speed and movement, gave an excellent account of himself and showed why Broner may just hightail it back to the lower weights.

GOOD BUT WORRISOME START FOR THE MAGIC MAN: I had Paulie taking three of the first four rounds (1,2 and 4), but I doubt any Malignaggi fan was comfortable with the fight. The pace was favoring Broner, who was in 30 second intervals trapping Paulie on the ropes and banging away to the body, or landing flush lead rights and left hooks upstairs. Malignaggi was evading serious trouble, but you just knew he wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for another eight rounds.

What Paulie did an excellent job of was trying to make his offense, which is notorious for being slapping shots, look as eye-catching as possible to the judges. He risked stinging counters by always throwing 3-4 punch combinations whenever he went to the body. And his jab did a solid job of making Broner reset and not overhwhelm him inside.

BRONER TAKES OVER: The middle rounds (5-9) were all Broner. With Paulie’s legs starting to slow down, The Problem went to town with lead right hands and hooks. Malignaggi took most of them well, but noticeably froze for a moment in the sixth went strafed to the body with a right hook. Broner also made a great adjustment in torquing his right uppercut anytime Malignaggi leaned in to the work the body.

Despite the abundance of clean right hands, Malignaggi was never seriously buckled and could be seen shimmying and sticking out his tongue. In addition, he always came back with his own shots. Unfortunately for Malignaggi, his offense upstairs were woeful due to Broner’s shoulder roll — his shots to the head looked sloppy and weak as he tried to find Broner’s head.

PAULIE’S GOES ROCKY IN ROUND 10: Any thoughts of Paulie not making it the distance pretty much evaporated in the 10th. Broner was again dictating the pace in walking Malignaggi down with right hands. But Paulie made a concerted effort to make Broner goes backwards, and succeeded in giving him pause with an assortment of hard jabs and right hands that were starting to split Broner’s gloves. While they didn’t look too damaging, they had enough of an impact where Broner would stop punching and even got trapped on the ropes.

THE FINISH: Malignaggi remained outgunned in the last two rounds, but he had a few moments that took away some of Broner’s thunder. When Broner tried to taunt Malignaggi by talking to Mayweather ringside, Paulie got in a shot and had his own quick convo with Floyd. In fact, it was Malignaggi talking the most trash in the 12th while taking Broner’s best punches. Malignaggi’s flair was so much that a lot of people gave him in the round on pure emotion, although a neutral perspective on the clean punches landed makes it a hard sell in not giving it to Broner.

THE LACK OF CLASS CONTINUES: The unwritten rule in boxing is no matter how much you hate an opponent, respect is given after the fight. No, you don’t have to become best friends, but you acknowledge the trial of fire you both went through and the hard work to get to that point. Malignaggi did just that after losing the bout by split decision (115-113, 113-115 and 111-117). He went over to Broner’s corner and shook everyone’s hand, and looked to be congratulating Broner.

That meant little to Broner when it came time for his post-fight interview. Once again, he brought up “taking Paulie’s girl,” which made Malignaggi irate all over again and almost lead to more blows. Bragging about sharing someone else’s woman (or “side piece” as Malignaggi put it), is just nasty to any sane adult, but it did put in perspective why Broner already has five kids at 23 years old.

Malignaggi remained pissed off and used his interview to berate judge Tom Schrek for his Broner score of 117-111, saying he was in the pocket of Broner manager Al Haymon. It wasn’t to the level of Paulie’s epic rant after losing Diaz I, but I loved that he didn’t back down even after Jim Gray implied he had sour grapes in saying the fight was fixed. Malignaggi countered by saying what we all know to be true — the star fighter usually gets the benefit of the doubt.

With that in mind, Malignaggi needs to remember he’s been the benefit of that adage to. Look no further than his last fight against Pablo Cesar Cano in Brooklyn where he took a highly debatable win even after being dropped. And early on in Paulie’s Showtime career, he got the benefit of the doubt in another decision over Herman Ngoudjo back in 2008.

NO ROBBERY: While seeing Broner lose would have been funny just to see his reaction, the right fighter won. I’ve seen a few people claim Malignaggi won, but there’s no conceivable way you can think that unless you’re using the amateur point system and just counting punches, not their damage. My score was 116-112 for Broner, who took rounds 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 on my card.

MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT YEARS AGO: I honestly think a 25-year old version of Malignaggi would have had a good shot of beating Broner. When Paulie had his legs, he was a handful to track down and like Mayweather pointed out, Broner is very flat-footed and had issues at times chasing down the 32-year old Malignaggi of last night.

NO MONSTER AT 147: Broner has been boiling down to lightweight (and junior lightweight, before that) to have a size advantage over his opposition. That is the irrefutable truth. He’s been coming into the ring around or above the welterweight limit for numerous fights now, so the whole “jumping up two weight classes” was frankly a bunch of nonsense. He’s fighting at his natural weight and as we saw last night, he wont’ be a big hitter in this division. Malignaggi, who essentially brought a water gun to a firefight, was exchanging with Broner in the pocket at various points. What would happen if Broner got into a similar exchange with Marcos Maidana (a fight already being proposed)? Or Lucas Matthysse? Hell, even Victor Ortiz?

IT’S GOOD NOT BE MAYWEATHER: If Broner can’t hurt these guys at 147 or 140, it will be very interesting to see how he fares. No, Broner’s nowhere near as good as Mayweather was at 23, but that’s a good thing in my opinion. His vulnerability will make his fights much more intriguing at the higher weights.

MITCHELL’S KEEPS HIS CAREER ALIVE: It wasn’t pretty after the fifth round, but Seth Mitchell stay composed and kept his chin out of harm’s way to win a unanimous decision over Johnathon Banks (117-109, 115-112, 114-112). After Banks got caught with a flash/pushing knockdown in the second, he came alive and hurt Mitchell badly with right counters in rounds three and four. Mitchell was in it a bad way but survived both times.

After that, Banks just turned the fight into a sparring session and lost all aggression. You have to give Mitchell credit for working behind the jab, smothering inside and keeping his mistakes to a minimum, but it was still a head-scratcher to see Banks with no sense of urgency. Outside of hurting Mitchell again in the eighth, Banks essentially shut down to the point where his corner repeatedly asked him what was wrong.

I’d like to see Mitchell in there with another tough challenge next but I’m not sure if that can happen with a lot of the Top 10 being tied up. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him take on someone like Orlandier Solis before the year is out.

So let’s discuss, people. Are you a believer in Adrien Broner at 147, or should he had back down to the lower weights?