By Bill Calogero

last weekend, Paulie Malignaggi won a unanimous 12-round decision over Lovemore N’Dou to capture   the IBF Jr. Welterweight Title on Saturday night. It was broadcast live on HBO’s Boxing After Dark Series from the beautiful Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino.

Malignaggi used his superior hand and foot speed to dominate the fight by out pointing the former champion. His ability to land his jab followed by multi-punch combinations kept Lovemore N’Dou at a safe distance during most of the fight.

Malignaggi’s pitter-pat style was all he needed to capture the first World Title of his career. From the very first round, Paulie was able to land his jab followed by his questionable right hand. As the fight progressed, Malignaggi began doubling and tripling his jab and mixed in his uppercut while throwing his often hurt right hand sparingly. His speed and accuracy helped keep N’Dou off balance for most of the fight.

Aside from watching a fighter that has absolutely NO punching power at all, the only blemish of the bout happened during the 6th round when referee Eddie Cotton took a point away from Lovemore N’Dou for hitting behind the head of Paulie Malignaggi. This was a questionable call because N’Dou was never warned prior to the point deduction during the sixth round. He was warned during the third, but had not thrown an illegal punch during the time leading up to the point deduction.

Malignaggi’s constant movement creates an awkward style, which includes him switching and moving around throwing punches from many different angles. It was actually during one of these instances when N’Dou hit him behind the head. Although the punch was clearly behind Paulie’s head, in my opinion, should not have resulted in a point deduction.

During the ninth round, a short right hand caught Lovemore N’Dou on his chin, as he was moving away awkwardly sending him down for an eight count. It was clearly a knock down, but N’Dou was in by no means in any kind of trouble.

Lovemore N’Dou tried to mount an aggressive attack but was not able to land many flush punches due to Paulie’s hand and foot speed. He ended up spending twelve rounds chasing Malignaggi around the ring, which was exactly what Paulie and his team had hoped for.

Paulie has no punching power to speak of, but his crisp jab and hand speed was very impressive and left no doubt in anyone’s mind who saw the fight that he indeed won and deserved to be crowned as the new IBF World Jr. Welterweight Champion.

Two of the three judges at ringside scored the fight 120-106, while the third had it 118-108 all in favor of Paulie Malignaggi. BoxingScene.com scored the fight 120-106, also in favor of Paulie Malignaggi.

Malignaggi improves to 23-1 (5 KOs) while Lovemore N’Dou drops to 45-9-1 (30 KOs).

Paulie Malignaggi proved to me that he’s a warrior and deserves to be a world Champion. His constant pressure and his “kill or be killed” attitude impressed me. All of the hard work and early struggles with his hand injuries proved to help build what we saw on Saturday night.

If there is some way Paulie can increase his punching power and if he can continue to keep his right hand healthy, then he will do very well in the Jr. Welterweight Division for a long time. He did take some heavy shots from Lovemore N’Dou, who WAS able to land several during the bout, one cutting Paulie’s eye, but his chin proved to be a solid one. Fast hands, plus good footwork and a solid chin all add up to a World Champion.

My only other comment is that he (Paulie) should fire his hair stylist. What the hell was he thinking? He looked like a circus performer, rather than a fighter.

In other action, Andre Dirrell kept his undefeated record in tact by winning a unanimous decision over Curtis Stevens in their ten-round Super Middleweight contest.

Dirrell didn’t please the crowd with his victory, but was able to win almost every round by out-boxing the much more powerful Stevens. While Andre Dirrell’s corner was able to help him stay with his game plan and keep winning rounds, Steven’s corner failed to help their fighter make the proper adjustments.

During the fight, Steven’s corner was being honest with their fighter, telling him he was losing the rounds but failed miserably with helping the young up and coming fighter adjust to what was happening inside the ring.

If Curtis would have cut the ring off and cornered Dirrell, he would have positioned himself to use his obvious punching power to score points and possibly a knockout. If he was told to work the body of Dirrell a little more, he may have slowed the runner down, which may have set up more opportunities for Curtis to land a big punch as the fight progressed.

Nonetheless, it was Andre Dirrell who came away with the win. Two of the three judges at ringside scored the fight 97-93 while the third saw it at 98-92 all in favor of Andre Dirrell. BoxingScene.com scored the fight 98-92 also in favor of Dirrell. Andre Dirrell improves to 12-0 (7 KOs) while Curtis Stevens loses for the second time of his career, dropping to 17-2 (12 KOs).

Although he lost, I honestly feel that Stevens is the better fighter. I give his corner credit for being honest with him after the fifth round when they said, “you are down five rounds”, but all they did to help Curtis was the tell him “you have to get it going”. Get what going? What they NEEDED to do was to tell him how and what to do to “get going”. I also must add that I am ONLY going by what I heard from the microphone that was picking up the conversation in the corner. Stevens’ corner may very well have been telling him everything I mention here and Curtis just failed to execute.

Boxer’s corners are more important to the outcome of a fight than most people realize. In some corners all you hear is three guys barking out instructions. When that happens, it produces a lot of commotion. Most of the time the fighter himself can only hear or at least comprehend one adjustment per round, from one voice. He needs time to “listen” to his corner’s advice. By the time a fighter becomes a professional, they need more than a rah-rah man in their corner. They need someone to help them make the adjustments needed to win the fight. The corner must assist their fighter in taking advantage of a weakness they see from the sidelines that a boxer may not see inside of the ring during the heat of battle. The weakness can be either their own or the opponents. They need to recognize it and try to correct it in between rounds.

With that said, the most successful trainers speak quietly and slowly. They also concentrate on one issue at a time so the fighter has time to comprehend what is being said before he goes out for the next round. Don’t get me wrong, even the most experienced professional boxers need a pep talk every now and then, but the trainers that can successfully assist their fighters in making adjustments DURING the fight, and have them actually respond to what they are trying to tell them are the ones that will produce champion fighters. The ones that can’t will produce the opponents.

James “Buddy” McGirt did a great job during Paulie Malignaggi’s victory Saturday night over Lovemore N’Dou. He was able to speak slowly and clearly during rounds and helped Malignaggi control the fight. It made the difference. Curtis Stevens’ corner fell short and the end result was a loss. It’s too bad because Curtis Stevens seems to have raw talent and power but in order to get to the next level, he will need the ability to make adjustments on the fly. In order to do that, you need the right team around you. But then again, if your corner DOES tell a fighter what to do and they don’t, the fighter must take the heat.

In Stevens’ case, he is young and his corner is young and together they show a lot of promise, but until they ALL operate on the same page, they may have trouble wining a world title. If they can, as a team, get it together, the future of Curtis Stevens is a bright one.

I am not taking anything away from Andre Dirrell, however he won his fight against Curtis Stevens by running away. But then again, a win is a win.