June 2013 – Neon Graveyard

Apparent future superstar Adrien Broner moves up two divisions when he challenges hometown kid and WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Showtime will televise the bout.

Broner is a familiar kind of Malignaggi opponent. This is the third time Paulie has found himself in a fight like this, in New York against a talented young fighter deemed to have big-time potential. The first two instances happened at junior welterweight, where Malignaggi made his name. In 2006, Malignaggi (then only 25 himself) fought a 25-year-old Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden and took a bad beating. Four years later he fought Amir Khan in the same venue and took another bad beating.

The only thing that could keep him from taking another bad beating tomorrow night is the 147-lb limit the fight will be contested at. Broner has never fought at junior welterweight, let alone welterweight, and just two fights ago he was still fighting at junior lightweight.

In recent years it has become somewhat common to see fighters jump multiple weight classes in a short period of time and maintain their level of performance (with Manny Pacquiao starting the trend); we’ll see how Broner fares. Judging from the photos he posted of himself on Instagram during his training camp, the added weight hadn’t caused his physique to suffer any. He looks phenomenal, like a picture of physical fitness. Of course, just because he’s shredded doesn’t mean his vaunted speed and power won’t be dulled by the extra 12 lbs.

It doesn’t matter. Even if Broner is not his usual self tomorrow night, the gap in talent between him and Malignaggi is so wide that a victory for Broner is virtually guaranteed. Malignaggi has absolutely no punching power but he is a good fighter, a good boxer, a slickster with solid legs and hand speed.

Broner, though, is something altogether different. He may be the best young fighter since Floyd Mayweather, Jr., the man he pattern himself after in (and out of) the ring. A gifted athlete like Mayweather, Broner copied his friend’s trademark shoulder-roll defense, poise, and early (and recent) boxer-puncher style to a tee (the similar gait and mannerisms making the mimicry uncanny).

Malignaggi’s best win came in 2009, in the rematch of a fight most people thought he won against Juan Diaz that same year. Malignaggi gave nice performances in those fights, but Broner battered Antonio De Marco and Gavin Rees in his previous two outings. Malignaggi is better than both of those men, but really, by how much? Not enough to make any kind of meaningful difference in this fight.

It’s impossible to know if Broner will respond to the new division against Malignaggi, but it’s just as impossible to foresee the Cincinnati native losing this fight regardless of how well he carries the weight.

Broner TKO11 Malignaggi.

Depreciated slugger Juan Manuel Lopez put it all on the line when he challenges WBO featherweight champion and rising star Mikey Garcia Saturday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on HBO.

This is a crossroads fight for Lopez, who hasn’t faced a legitimate threat since being knocked out by Orlando Salido in March of 2012. The loss marked the second time in three fights that Lopez had been knocked out by the rugged Mexican.

In the aftermath, Lopez was suspended one year for controversial comments made about the referee to post-fight interviewer Jim Gray. The suspension was lifted in November, and in February Lopez returned to the ring to stop Aldimar Silva Santos in nine rounds. Two months later Lopez fought again, this time scoring a second-round knockout of Eugenio Lopez in a second consecutive tune-up fight.

Now he steps back into the fire, with the timing and choice of opponent both seeming a bit curious. Why would a former elite fighter looking to regain his previous status fight two off-the-radar opponents, then decide to tangle with a man on the cusp of pound-for-pound stardom?

The answer is probably tied to the 29-year-old Lopez’s warrior’s mentality, which is what gets him into trouble in the ring. In 2010, Carlos Acevedo wrote that Lopez “suffers from a tendency to turn every fight into a spaghetti western: showdowns and shootouts from bell to bell… or until only one bad man is standing. This recklessness … will catch up to him sooner or later.” Against Salido, it did, with the help of a chin not suited for a brawler. A similar attitude towards degree-of-difficulty is probably what led Lopez to take this fight.

It’s a risky one. Mikey Garcia is four years younger, much fresher, and a beautiful boxer-puncher. He’s disciplined, skilled, and can hit – in his last outing he dropped Salido, Lopez’s conqueror, four times in a dominant performance. It was a showcase of skill, accuracy, and punching power that saw Garcia be awarded a technical decision when an accidental head-butt by Salida broke his nose and caused the ring doctor to call for the stopping of the fight after the eighth round.

Lopez is in a catch-22 here. If he is his usual self tomorrow, there is a decent chance he will be knocked out. If the two losses to Salido have changed him, made him wiser and more cautious, he is not skilled enough to outbox a well-schooled, natural technician like Garcia.

A once prized prospect, Lopez would have had a hard time with Garcia even at the peak of his promise. That is what makes this fight such a strange choice for Lopez at this particular point in his career. A couple of wins over solid contenders would have given him enough breathing room, rebuilt enough of his career, that he could have then overcome a loss against a fighter like Garcia. Instead, Lopez prepares to walk tomorrow night into a fight that could eliminate for good any notion of him as a truly meaningful fighter.

Then again, the reward here is as high as the risk, as a win over Garcia would fully mend Lopez’s reputation. Perhaps that is what Lopez saw when he decided to take this fight, and considering his style, an all-or-nothing-themed affair would certainly seem to appeal to him. And perhaps he will be motivated by the make-or-break, do-or-die, back against the wall nature of the fight for him. Whatever the outcome, Lopez’s desperation gives the fight a dramatic air going into it.

Garcia, UD: 116-11, 115-112, 115-112.