While Adrien Broner didn’t knock out Paulie Malignaggi like he promised before his debut Welterweight fight, he certainly proved to be worthy of being referred to as the next big thing in boxing, winning through a split decision to claim his third title on his third weight class in the span of only 19 months.

A lot of trash talk before and during the fight almost took away the attention from the actual boxing, but Broner brought on excellent defense and a significant advantage in speed and power to the fight, winning on two of the three scorecards (115-113, 117-111) while the third judge gave the win to Malignaggi (115-113). AP scored the fight 117-111 in Broner’s favor.

Broner was semi-respectful after the fight, but had to take a few digs at the hometown hero he just beat in front of 11,000 in New York.

He’s a world class fighter, but to come to somebody’s hometown and beat them on a split decision, that’s saying something. He couldn’t hit me. He couldn’t hit me. He was shadowboxing. I came into town, and I got his belt and his girl.

Malignaggi tried to be civil and PC at first, but couldn’t overcome the disappointment from the loss (now 32-5), blaming corruption and what not on the loss, instead of skills and being outboxed.

He worked for about 30 seconds every round. This was a close fight. I don’t mind if you had him winning close or me winning close, it was that kind of a fight. I thought I out-threw him and outworked him. He was sharp in spots, but he wasn’t busy. He didn’t land. They looked pretty. When he did work, he was good, but I had the better pace. This is a close fight. I don’t even mind having him close or me close. But it could have gone either way. 

In my hometown, as the defending champion, I felt like I should have got it. Tom Schreck is a New York judge and in Al Haymon’s pocket. That’s all there is to it. I thought it was an entertaining fight and the fans got their money’s worth, but it’s a lot of bulls@#$. There’s politics, and you get bulls@#$ like this.

It’s part of the game, and somebody should do something about it. I don’t have to fight again. I made good money in boxing and I work with you guys at Showtime as an announcer. I’m not saying it was fixed, but it’s always the more connected fighter who gets the decision.

Broner now joins Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya as the only fighters to win title belts at 130, 135 and 147 lbs, skipping right over the Light-Welterweight division in order to get himself in a more loaded and financially gratifying weight class.

There wasn’t much of a difference in the amount they hit, but Broner landed cleaner shots, while Malignaggi lookes like he was just hoping to hit something while constantly throwing his hands forwards. Broner connected on 47% of his shots (246 of 524 punches) while making Malignaggi miss, and a lot, connecting on only 214 of 843 of his punches, roughly 25%. He was the busier fighter, but hardly got a clean shot at Broner.

What’s Next? Broner says he doesn’t care, after picking up a career high $1.5 million from the fight. He just wants it to be a fan-pleasing name, and doesn’t mind the fans putting the matter up to a vote. According to Golden Boy CEO, there’s a good chance that Argentine Marcos Maidana, who recently beat up Joselito Lopez in a brutal fight, is next.

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