Paulie Malignaggi believes he should still be champion — but the judges said otherwise.
The Brooklyn native lost his WBA welterweight title to 23-year-old Adrian Broner in a 12-round split decision in front of a record boxing crowd of 11,461 at the Barclays Center on Saturday night. Broner became just the third fighter in history to win a belt in his first fight after jumping over a weight class.
But after the fight, Malignaggi told Showtimes’ Jim Gray that his history — and home field advantage — should have weighted in his favor.
“In my hometown as the defending champion I felt I should have got it,” the 32-year-old Malignaggi said. “He didn’t do enough to take the belt from the champion.”
And Malignaggi didn’t rule out boxing’s seedier side in handing Broner the win, falling just short of saying that judge Tom Schreck, who scored the fight 117–111 for Broner, was bought and paid for by Broner powerful manger, Al Haymon.
“I’m not really trying to say he really is in [his] pocket, but I do think he is a bit incompetent in what he is watching,” he said.
The other judges were split in their opinions of who won.
Judge Tom Miller had Malignaggi winning 115–113, and judge Glenn Feldman agave it to Broner, 115–113 and 117–111 respectively.
“The fight could have went either way,” Malignaggi said.
Broner, a champion in three different weight classes, landing 246 of 524 punches and connected on considerably more power shots (214–94).
“I tip my hat to him,” Broner said. “He can take shot — a lot of them.”
Malignaggi put on the type of gutty performance that’s come to be expected of him in big fights. He admitted his older legs might have made a difference, saying Broner wouldn’t have beaten a 25-year-old version of himself. He never believed he was in danger of being knocked out by Broner, a Floyd Mayweather clone considered a big puncher. Mayweather was on hand to see the fight.
“I think AB is pretty ordinary,” Malignaggi said.
The trash talking that littered the prefight build up carried over. As Broner landed hard clean punches he taunted Malignaggi by shaking his head and saying, “You can’t hit me.”
“It’s not about how many shots you throw it’s about how many shots you land,” Broner said. “I was landing the more effect shots, the bigger shots.”
Broner, who is now supposedly dating Malignaggi’s former girlfriend, brought her up again after the fight, sparking the former champion to come across the ring and get into his face.
“I beat Paulie,” Broner said. “I left with his belt and his girl.”
Malignaggi, who is also a commentator for Showtime, is open to a rematch, but isn’t sure if this is the last time he exits a ring as a fighter. He talked about how he no longer likes the work that goes into big fights. There was no talk of a formal retirement, but Malignaggi was obviously disheartened.
“We’ll see,” Malignaggi said. “I’ll see if I feel like training this way again for another training camp.”
Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.
