Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KOs) fought valiantly over 12 tough rounds, but in the end Adrien “The Problem” Broner (27-0, 22 KOs) got the nod by split decision.
The official scores were close and read 115-113 for Malignaggi, 115-113 for Broner, and 117-111 for Broner.
Broner came into the bout as the challenger, but was an 11 to 1 favorite to win. What the bout ended up coming down to was Broner’s more powerful punches versus Malignaggi’s volume punching.
It’s clear that two of the three judges gave Malignaggi a lot of credit for the amount of jabs and pitty-pat type punches he threw and landed. Broner was never hurt or even bothered by Malignaggi’s offense, but he was hit, so it’s logical that some people may have had different looking score cards.
Because he lacks any serious power, Malignaggi had a very difficult task in front of him going into the bout. He was smart by employing the game plan that he did, which included a lot of jabs, body work and movement. Malignaggi threw 843 punches compared to 524 for Adrien Broner and landed 214 compared to Broner’s 246.
#ShoStats: Total Punches Landed/Thrown: Malignaggi [214/843] Broner [246/524]
— SHO Stats (@SHOStats) June 23, 2013
With the win, Broner is now a three-division champion in his career and the current WBA Welterweight champion. Broner has a number of different options to choose from and he told Jim Gray in his post-fight interview on Showtime that he would let his fans vote on who he faces next.
It remains to be seen how that fan vote will work or if it will actually take place.
Although Malignaggi said that he would like to land a rematch with Broner, he was hesitant to commit to fighting in the future. According to the Brooklyn fighter, training camp has now become a task and he doesn’t look forward to training like he did in the past.
Some people—including Malignaggi—saw the 117-111 score card as corrupt and unfair.
Close fight Bullshit scores @PaulMalignaggi won i think Broner has no Class.
— Vanes Martirosyan (@VanesBoxing) June 23, 2013
During the post-fight press conference, Malignaggi took the chance to apologize for being “emotional” during his interview with Jim Gray. Malignaggi said to Gray that he thought Tom Schreck—who was the judge that scored the bout 117-111 for Broner—was in Al Haymon’s pocket.
All politics aside, Malignaggi fought a good fight and showed that if he still wants to continue his career, he still can do so at a high level.
Where should Adrien Broner go from here? Should he stay at 147 pounds and defend his title? Let us know using #RBRBoxing
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