Quote Originally Posted by Jeverett
I was ringside for the fight and I thought Paulie put on a great performance. I summarized the fight and some of my thoughts of Paulie in an article attached below:

Paulie Malignaggi – Victory in Defeat
By: Jim Everett

Paulie Malignaggi’s record drops to 25-1 after his loss to Miguel Cotto this past weekend at Madison Square Garden. The judges awarded a unanimous decision to Cotto with two judges scoring the bout 116-111 and the third judge 115-112.

Malignaggi went into the fight an overall underdog. The betting line for Malignaggi to win listed him as a 4 ½ to 1 underdog, and although he was fighting in his own backyard the capacity crowd cheered for the champion Miguel Cotto on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade. Much of the boxing world didn’t give him much of a chance to win the fight saying he was too inexperienced and not ready for such a test in facing Cotto and that the only reason he was given the fight was because of his brash fast talking style. If his mouth got him the opportunity to fight it was his heart that allowed him to finish it.

Early in the opening round Malignaggi suffered a cut over his left eye from an accidental head butt that caused blood to pour into his eye. The cut was one of the worst he had ever experienced and caused him to panic taking him off of his game plan. Cotto dropped him in the second round from a solid left hook but he was up right away. Behind on all the scorecards Malignaggi took rounds five and six by landing several 1-2s and three punch combinations. Cotto responded with vicious body shots and hooks to his face in rounds eight and nine which caused Malignaggi’s jaw to begin to swell.

In rounds nine and ten Malignaggi was boxing well jabbing and moving while letting both hands go stopping Cotto’s forward movement. A strong right hand staggered an off-balanced Cotto and the once pro-Cotto crowd responded yelling Paulie, Paulie! Cotto came into the eleventh round relentless causing blood to pour from Malignaggi’s nose. The crowd was cheering and chanting for both fighters through the end of the fight. Cotto continued his onslaught while Malignaggi stood in front of him defiantly standing toe to toe with the champion.

During the post fight interview Malignaggi looked battered with a cut over his eye, right cheek badly swollen and blood still trickling from his broken nose. He made no excuses for his performance and gave credit to Cotto for being a great champion. The disappointment on his face was apparent as he said “I am so disappointed, I wanted to win so bad.”

Although he lost his first championship bout Malignaggi should be proud of what should be seen as a victory. He showed tremendous courage and heart, proved many boxing critics wrong that he did deserve to be in the ring with Cotto, turned many in the pro-Cotto crowd into his own fans, and he was able to take Cotto a full twelve rounds which Cotto only had to do one other time in his 27-0 career. As said in the closing comments from Wallace Matthews “Paulie Malignaggi, a noble second place finisher tonight.”
Nice.

Welcome to the forum Jeverett.

Have the Obligatory Wacko Welcome Wagon

While I do believe Paulie put up one hell of a fight...he did get outboxed & outclassed by Cotto. Paulie was just pushed into the biggest fight of his career at far to early a time.

You can feed a man corpses for the majority of his career & then throw him in with one of the heaviest handed hitters @ 140/147, respectfully.

Also...I'd just like to add that you can take chicken shit & make chicken salad & avoid coming out with stank mouf.