In another baitless, barbless hook of a prizefight, Danny Garcia stopped Paulie Malignaggi in nine rounds at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Saturday. Referee Arthur Mercante, Jr., who had warned Malignaggi after the eighth that he would stop the fight should the ?Magic Man? continue to accomplish so little, saw Garcia nearly land in combination on the stumbling Malignaggi and thought it fitting time to end a forgone conclusion. It was a stoppage that surely left Yuri Foreman incredulous. Mercante once hurled a towel mercifully lobbed from Foreman?s corner out of the ring, and demanded the crippled Foreman fight on.
But as fun as it may be for some, bellyaching over the legitimacy of the stoppage is pointless; first, because however much boxing lends itself to revisionist history, to onanistic logic, the outcome of the fight will not change; and second, because Malignaggi seemed quite content with calling it a night. And why wouldn?t he? The Bensonhurst blowhard was hardly fighting for his future. With his plush gig as a Showtime Championship Boxing television analyst (where he describes the action and decries the competition) Malignaggi never needs to skip rope again let alone eat a hook. Malignaggi loves the mic too, and not only because it pays him to flash his perspicacity. Somehow his position as an analyst permits Malignaggi to run his mouth with zero accountability?which, of course, is exactly the level of accountability any self-styled ?Social Media King? requires.
Thankfully, the ring brings consequences. Not for outside transgressions, mind you?despite what the most sanctimonious, vindictive or patriotic boxing enthusiast will tell you, the world?s wrongs are not righted because one fighter bludgeons another?but for those inherent to boxing itself. Malignaggi committed one such transgression when he overstayed his welcome in a cash grab. Garcia, as he was supposed to, thoroughly if unimpressively, punished him for it.
With the senseless slaughter of Rod Salka sandwiched by two dubious decisions over Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson, Garcia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was in need of a facelift. That meant finding an opponent of some credibility he could starch. The Salka route would never work twice, not with the public shaming that met that miscarriage of sport. And with Garcia fighting on ESPN, even Al Haymon puppet and Showtime Executive, Stephen Espinoza, would be disinclined to lend his snarky lawyering absurdities to Twitter in defense of another criminal mismatch. That meant finding a shopworn fighter, preferably one whose ability to take a punch was as compromised as his ability to avoid one; that meant convincing Malignaggi, 146 3/4, to take one for the good of the brand.
For all the vitriol directed at the PBC, perhaps none is truer, more important, than this: the matchmaking is simply not good. This does not necessarily make the PBC unique (HBO is no less guilty of letting its stars hit off a tee, though they do so with less regularity, and usually with an end in plain sight). That the PBC is merely participating in the perpetuation of rubbish, however, is no defense. The selection of Malignaggi is another example of the type of matchmaking that gives the optimists and contrarians fits when they try to predict any but the most obvious outcome. Malignaggi, 34 years old, returning from a 16-month layoff, feather-fisted as ever, and reliant on a youth no longer in his possession, was in many ways ideal. Even Shawn Porter, who must suffer from myopia, hyperopia, or both, found Malignaggi?s chin. Yet even the husk of Malignaggi proved slippery enough to make the lead-footed Garcia look average.
Garcia, to borrow from Henry James, is like the number zero: his value comes from what he is paired with. He is at heart, a counter-puncher, looking his best against men who will accommodate his range and dig in. His two signature victories came against a bona fide banger, Lucas Matthysse, and a naked emperor who thinks he is dressed like one, Amir Khan. But even in winning, Garcia looked lost against Herrera, who clowned Garcia with his jab, and Peterson, who skittered away from Garcia for six rounds before bringing the type of fight ?Swift? might not have asked for had he known it was coming. He never looked lost against Malignaggi; but then, he never looked especially impressive either.
While finally throwing like a man with no regard for return fire?and to this end, the matchmaking was perfect?Garcia, 146 3/4, still struggled to initiate his offense. When he stepped in with his punches he scored, particularly with a cross that Malignaggi was no longer magician enough to avoid. But Garcia never looked entirely confident bringing the fight to Malignaggi, and when he abandoned his jab for lead hooks and looping right hands?the tools he is hardwired to throw in response?he often missed badly. Despite his misses, though, Garcia landed enough, and with enough power, to precipitate the obvious.
Malignaggi was cut over the right eye in the third and absorbed a brutal body attack in the middle rounds. As his legs failed him, Malignaggi, 33-7 (7), tried to fight off Garcia, and while he still managed to slip a number of punches, and to score with uppercuts and the odd flurry to the body, he was playing to Garcia?s strengths. Finally in a position to counterpunch, Garcia went to work until his work was deemed complete at 2:22 of the ninth round.
The move to welterweight was meant to improve Garcia, who had struggled first with making the junior welterweight limit, then with looking impressive in the custom divisions he inhabited on his leisurely journey to welterweight. Whether Garcia, 31-0 (18), is improved by the added pounds seems a two-part question. He surely feels stronger for not having to shed those last tenacious pounds, but that strength may not necessarily translate into better showings. If Garcia is a better fighter than the struggling version of recent years then he is a threat to every welterweight in the PBC (a branch of the division that appears increasingly ordinary) except for Floyd Mayweather, Jr. If he does not exhibit such improvement, well, the solution to that problem is obvious: find opposition to mask it. Either way, since beating Matthysse, Garcia has not once been placed in a fight he was expected to lose. That trend should continue.
