Fight Preview: Broner vs Malignaggi – The Problem vs The Magic Man

Broner vs Malinaggi :This weekend at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York Paulie Malinaggi puts his WBA Welterweight belt on the line as Adrien Broner

Since this fight was made a few months back the trash talk that has gone on has been on a level perhaps as entertaining as any fight in recent years. On one hand you have the New York slickster Paulie ‘The Magic Man’ Malinaggi who is a man never lost for words and in his spare time regularly commentates for HBO. On the other you have a young, brash, gifted product of the American ghetto in Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner.

The combination of these two highly extroverted and opinionated fighters has certainly made for an entertaining couple of months in the build up to the fight. Everything from Malinaggi labeling Broner a Floyd Mayweather wannabe, to Broner bringing up a previous girlfriend relationship that Malingaggi had in the past. It certainly has got a bit personal between the two, which makes me wonder could it play a factor in the fight.

If it’s to favour anyone I would tend to think it would favour Broner. He strikes me as a young guy who has genuine confidence (as much as some people don’t like him) and having watched yesterday’s press conference, I thought Paulie looked a little rattled if I’m honest. He seemed at times to be almost trying to convince himself of what he was saying and his body language to me suggested he was quiet nervous, in particular when it looked as if he was responding to people shouting at him from the gallery.

What of the actual fight itself? Well Broner is moving up two entire weight classes which is no mean feat in it’s own right. He has proven his power at lightweight but to step up to welterweight certainly takes considerable courage. He looks to have put on a lot of bulk for the fight which sometimes can be counter productive in terms of slowing a fighter’s speed down. Having said that he has chosen to fight a fairly light punching welterweight in Paulie Malinaggi, who let’s face it is not known for his power.

Malingaggi is however a very talented technical fighter and Broner has shown in the past that he can be hit fairly easily. I’d imagine Malinaggi’s plan will be one of getting behind the jab and boxing on the outside which at the same time, might be Broner’s plan too. You could see a bit of a stale mate in the early rounds, but I think after about round 3 you might see Broner starting to let go his big bombs which inevitably I see Malinaggi not being able to withstand.

Personally I think Broner is a bit special, and I think his youth, gifted ability and power will move up with him to the 147lbs limit and result in a stoppage of a Magic Man who may be coming to the end of a great career in the ring.

My prediction – Broner TKO between rounds 6-8.

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