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Magic Man Malignaggi – A Sign Of The Apocalypse?
TUE February 20, BUSTER PARIS - Father Kelley blasted off hundreds of emails proclaiming the Apocalypse was at hand … well, he said we’re 75% there…
The weekend of February 17th had two amazing events that rocked the very foundation of our culture and made us deeply question everything we thought we knew.
The first happening was that the beautiful pop princess Britney Spears walked into a beauty salon and shaved her head.
The second event that had folks running to their bibles and checking the last couple of chapters was that in the sport of boxing there is a very good and talented fighter who is humble and completely capable of honest self-assessment.
What makes this even more inconceivable and clearly a sign of the end of time is that the fighter is none other than Light Welterweight sensation Paul “Magic Man” Malignaggi.
Malignaggi is one of boxings most charismatic, flashy, cocky, brash and sparkling personalities – both inside and outside of the ring, which is why it was incredibly refreshing to hear him so humble and honest in his assessment of himself, his performance against Edner Cherry and of his future.
February 17th, 2007 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York - Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi (W 22 - 5 ko's & L 1) took on hard hitting Edner "Cherry Bomb" Cherry (W 21 - 10 ko's, L 5 & D 2) and produced a near shut out.
All 10 rounds were pretty much the same. They would start with Edner coming right at Paulie and trying to chase him down. Paulie, as he usually is, was fleet of foot and skillfully moving around the ring all the while displaying lighting fast hand speed as well as superbly popping out the jab.
At some inevitable point during a round Malignaggi would become the aggressor, not in a violent way, but he would be in control of the pace and the engagements – and was always beautifully jabbing away.
Paulie’s defense would be his speed; his footwork and upper body movement as well as catching some of Cherry’s bombs on his gloves and arms.
To Edner’s credit he was able to land more to Malignaggi’s head and face than we’re used to seeing Paulie get hit with – and in the 10th round (which was the only round I’d give Cherry) he caught Malignaggi with a really good right hand and was finally using his left hook, which his corner had been begging from him for the entire night.
In the end Judge Steve Epstein had the bout scored 100-90 and Judges Tom Kaczmarek and Bill Costello had it 98-92 --all for Paul Malignaggi.
Post fight HBO’s Max Kellerman asked Paulie to give himself a grade for the night – Paulie responded:
“…I had to make it a little exciting sometimes, but sometimes I guess the situation doesn’t warrant it, so to speak, you know, if I made it exciting with this guy I would have given him a chance to hurt me and possibly knock me out, you know. Coming off of the last fight [Miguel Cotto] which was a very physical fight, I felt like I need to show a little bit more boxing, and you know, just make sure I had everything together and, you know, make sure mentally I came back the right way so I made it boring sometimes, but I felt that was the way to go tonight.”
Max mentioned how he and the guys were discussing a potential fight between Malignaggi and Ricky Hatton – and asked what Paulie thought about that:
“I think I need to show a little more to beat Ricky Hatton. I definitely gotta maybe pick up the pace a little bit, you know. I think this was a fight where it was more for my confidence than anything else coming off that physical performance with Cotto, so maybe I could show a little more in the next fight to warrant a fight with Ricky Hatton."
"He’s a good fighter, definitely want to fight him. I told you guys [Max Kellerman and HBO] I said I want to test myself against the best of my era, but a performance like tonight I don’t think will convince many people of a fight with Ricky Hatton and me. It was a smart performance, but I think I need to push myself just a little more to get in there with Ricky Hatton.”
You really can’t get more honest than that, and he’s right, he could use a couple more fights – two or three tops to be in a position to warrant a fight with Hatton, but make no mistake - Malignaggi is an excellent fighter with a first-rate chin. He’s extremely talented, athletic, fast and fun to watch.
Not only is Paulie impressive inside the ring, but he’s impressive outside too. His humility, sincerity and honesty puts him in a special class of fighter – and a special class of human being.
Father Kelley --- hold off on the Apocalypse sermon … for now anyway.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions.
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