Paulie Malignaggi: Campaign to Save Brooklyn

I was so put out by the dearth of boxing venues on HBO this month that I switched to Showtime. I thought I’d take a second look at Paulie Malignaggi.

Malignaggi sort of grows on you—I have to admit I didn’t like his wardrobe designers. The punk-ass Brooklyn attitude didn’t bother me, not at all, except that it seemed a rehearsed third or fourth edition. Now I’m getting used to him, he seems to have refined the act so that it seems to fit him better. Malignaggi is what the old-school trainers used to call a “cutey pie.”

The rap on Malignaggi was that he’s a flashy puncher with great handspeed but that he’s undergunned in the power department. His other attributes are that he’s smooth on his feet and has a great sense of where he is located in the boxing ring and where the other guy is located, too. I’m beginning to be won over and sort of get a kick out of the guy. I can see him as part of the “Save Brooklyn” movement which I just invented. Besides, I was impressed that Malignaggi could take such a horrible beating from Miguel Cotto and stay in there when I would have been looking for a soft spot on the canvas where I could fall without hurting myself.

So anyway, I’m watching him tonight against Herman Ngoudgu, a 16-1 Canadian fighter who KO’d 9. Ngoudgu’s only loss was to Jose Luis Castillo in Jan 2007; he should be a good test for Malignaggi and a W on his record over the better known “Magic Man” would put his name up in lights. Should Ngoudgu get lucky, however…