Nigel lost that fight more so than Malinga winning it. Nigel only trained four weeks, didn't go to Tenerife for his camp either. He saw Malinga looking awful against Eubank, and told his people that Malinga would be a "three-round job".Originally Posted by Britkid
He under-estimated Malinga massively, but FFS Nigel was just standing in front of him with no guard, no head movement - Malinga couldn't miss him with his rangey, fast, arrow-like jabs and right crosses. Benn had his tongue busted up bad after Malinga's delived some snappy right uppercuts with his back against the ropes in round five, and Benn just generally lacked snap in his work.
I have no problem with Benn getting the decision because he was forcing the fight, Malinga was just sitting back and was too relaxed. Benn often repsonded from a jab that would snap his head back with say, a light triple-jab of his own and keep coming. It was clear Benn was in poor shape, and clear that Malinga was better on that one night than people expected, but Benn forced the fight and it was very close.. could of gone either way.
Malinga wasn't very good, he looked rubbish against Eubank and Roy Jones. He looked rubbish on Benn's undercards too when he fought Trevor Ambrose and Nardiello, and lost almost every round to Woodhall.
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