The fight between Jonathon Banks and Seth Mitchell was so boring, my dad and I came up with a drinking game to make things more amusing. We decided to take shots of whiskey every time the crowd would boo the fight. By the time the main event came along (Malignaggi vs. Broner); apparently we were so drunk, we thought Malignaggi ran away with the fight. When I woke up on Sunday, sobered up, I decided to watch the fight again and realized that my dad and I weren’t that drunk; the judges were, one in particular.
Alright, so maybe Tom Schreck was the only one three-sheets-to-the-wind. I won’t complain about Glenn Feldman’s score, who had it 115-113 for Broner, because that was fairly close to my score. I had the same score as Tom Miller, 115-113 for Malignaggi. However, I want to drink whatever it is Tom Schreck was drunk on Saturday night, considering he had a damn good time and was delusional beyond belief.
I took my opinions to Twitter, only to find out there are a lot of “casual boxing fans” out there who simply speak based on their biases. I am a true boxing fan who didn’t favor either fighter. I didn’t watch this fight having a favorite picked. That is information I want to make clear because I received some “hate” tweets from morons claiming that I’m a biased Paulie Malignaggi fan – wrong!
The problem with some boxing fans (the casual boxing fans), is that they are inconsistent. For example: the boxing fans who gave Austin Trout the nod in his match-up against Canelo Alvarez feel that Trout won the fight because he was the busier fighter of the two. I had Canelo comfortably beating Trout because of his hard, clean punches landed that clearly made a statement, judging from his knockdown that he scored against Trout. The same folks who had Trout up are the same people who believe Broner beat Malignaggi because of his “hard” punches landed. Why isn’t Malignaggi receiving any credit for being the busier fighter and working the body? Broner landed more punches, but they weren’t effective. He didn’t manage to put Malignaggi on the canvas one time. Canelo had Trout doing the stanky leg, respectively.
Another example of biased fans: Floyd Mayweather (and Broner) fans rave at the defense (running, moving) Mayweather does in the ring to avoid shots and being hit by opponents, but when Malignaggi does it…he’s running because he’s a …chicken? If Mayweather hopping on his bicycle is respected, why are other boxers “scared” if that’s what they resort to? Hypocritical fans are bad for boxing.
I gave the fight to Malignaggi because he was the most active fighter and worked the body. Broner was busy for about 45 seconds of each round, and he would throw hard punches that landed, but they didn’t buckle Paulie’s knees or force him to hit the canvas. I do not believe Broner did enough to take Paulie’s belt, but horrible decisions in boxing is starting to become a trend and it seems like it’s more acceptable each fight. Horrible judging is also bad for boxing.
So what now? For me, I’d like to see Paulie stick with commentating (if he didn’t lose his job with ShowTime. If so, HBO needs help…badly). I think he has great ring IQ and he has superior knowledge of the sport both inside and outside of the ring. Adrien Broner? Well, I think he should either step up in competition or shut the f*@$ up. I am not impressed with his record and wasn’t impressed with him in his fight against Paulie, either. Adrien Broner publicly acts like an obnoxious jerk, claiming to be the next big thing in boxing, yet hasn’t called out any “worthy” opponents. Let’s face it, Broner said it himself, Paulie is just a commentator, he isn’t relevant to boxing unless he’s got a microphone. What does that say about Adrien’s choice to fight him? I would like him to stop cherry picking to protect that precious 0 and fight some real talent, someone who actually has time to train and isn’t busy calling fights. The 140 division is stacked, the 147 division is stacked, and there’s even some worthy opponents hungry to fight him at 135. I could come up with at least 10 boxers from those divisions that would give Broner a hard time and would expose him even more than what Paulie did. Question is: will he fight them? No.
One thing is certain, Paulie Malignaggi clearly didn’t KO Adrien Broner in their bout on Saturday, but he knocked out Broner hard during their “battle of the trash talk”. And let’s just thank God that Jessica Corazon’s 15 minutes of fame is finally up!
--The Boxing Queen
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