Paulie Malignaggi successfully defended his IBF light welterweight title beating Herman Ngoudjo in a close 12-round unanimous decision victory on January 5, 2008 at Ballys in Atlantic City. Ngoudjo's aggressiveness frequently had Malignaggi backpeddling and his back against the ropes. He cut Malignaggi over the left eye in round four, beat him up and rocked him in round seven but Malignaggi did enough to retain his belt.
Malignaggi will be fighting Lovemore N'dou in an IBF light welterweight title rematch fight on May 24th at the City of Manchester Stadium in the UK on the Hatton-Lazcano undercard. Malignaggi may be fighting Ricky Hatton next in the US if everything goes as planned.
| Fight | Location | Date | Boxing Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malignaggi vs N'dou | Manchester Stadium, Manchester, GB |
May 24, 2008 Saturday 5:00 PM |
Hatton vs Lazcano Tickets |
| Note: Tickets for the Malignaggi vs N'dou fight sold as Ricky Hatton vs Juan Lazcano. | |||
Paulie "Magic Man" Malignaggi
Paulie Malignaggi from Brooklyn entered pro boxing as an amateur champion having won the 1998 and 2001 New York Golden Gloves Amateur Championship, 2001 United States National Amateur Championship and Everlast US Championships. In his professional boxing debut Paulie knocked out Thadeus Parker in Brooklyn in the first 27 seconds of round one. Malignaggi is a quick fighter but his punching power is not that great, only KOing 6 of his opponents. Malignaggi has suffered a broken right hand twice undergoing a couple of surgeries which can spell doom for a young boxer but yet Paulie has been able to bounce right back.
On June 10, 2006 in Malignaggi's fight with Cotto the trash talking Sicilian suffered a cut over his left eye, a broken a bone in his cheek and was bleeding from his nose and mouth yet he refused to surrender. You gotta respect Malignaggi for the heart, guts and determination he showed during the bout.
Malignaggi came off his brutal loss to Miguel Cotto winning a 10-round unanimous decision by shutout against lightweight contender Edner Cherry on February 17, 2007. Malignaggi controlled the fight with his left jab, quick footwork and ring generalship not letting Cherry land any clean punches.
On June 16, 2007 Malignaggi won a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over Lovemore Ndou capturing the IBF light welterweight title that Ndou was awarded after Ricky Hatton vacated it to fight Jose Luis Castillo instead of Ndou who was the mandatory challanger. Malignaggi was able to control the fight with his left jab and actually scored a knockdown dropping Ndou in the 9th round with a quick right.