By Sammy Rozenberg

The Magic was almost vanquished at Bally’s Casino in Atlantic City. Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi (24-1, 5KOs) retained his IBF junior welterweight title with a tough unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Herman “Black Panther” Ngoudjo (16-2, 9KOs). The scores were 115-113, 116-113 and 117-111.

The fight was more difficult for Malignaggi than many insiders expected. Ngoudjo was a 6-1 underdog and how can you have him as anything other than an underdog when considering his two most recent performances. He was very lucky in being awarded the decision in the IBF eliminator against Randall Bailey. He won a split-decision, but most of the ringside observers saw Bailey as the clear winner. Prior to Bailey, Ngoudjo was unable to close the show on a very rusty Jose Luis Castillo.

In the fight with Malignaggi, he didn’t target the body enough and it may have cost him the fight. There were a few rounds where Ngoudjo really rattled the champion with hard right hands. The elusiveness of Malignaggi was certainly missing from his arsenal and it only appeared in spurts.

If Malignaggi had one advantage against Ngoudjo, it was his speed. In most fights, opponents are unable to hit him with clean punches. Not tonight. He was up against a fighter with much slower hands and was hit way too often. Ngoudjo not only got off with some hard right hands, he was able to land his jab at times and finished very strong in the final two rounds.

Prior to this fight, Malignaggi was a clear frontrunner for a fight with Ricky Hatton. Based on his performance, it may actually boosted his position to land the fight. He was hit, and rattled, with punches by a fighter who lacks punching power and good hand speed. Hatton is a superior puncher to Ngoudjo and possesses much quicker hands.  Because Ngoudjo was able to land more punches than expected, the scrap was actually more entertaining than most of Malignaggi's previous fights.

Malignaggi, because of his lack of punching power, has been having a hard time securing dates on major networks. After winning the IBF title from Lovemore Ndou last June, promoter Lou DiBella went through hell to get him back on major television.

The networks are in love with punchers. Pure boxers like Chris Byrd were blacklisted by the networks for years. He was unable to defend his IBF heavyweight title on HBO for a better part of his full title reign. 

Promoter Don King, in order to prevent the consistent loss of money due to Byrd's high guarantee per fight, put on his own pay-per-view shows with Byrd in the main event or co-feature position. Top Rank has used the same approach to market fighters like Ivan Calderon and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, by placing them on Top Rank pay-per-views. Even Main Events had to put on their own pay-per-view events to showcase several of Evander Holyfield's recent fights.

Today's promoters are no longer allowing the major cable networks to dictate the direction of the industry. Top Rank's Dec. 1 pay-per-view with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had a buyrate of 70,000 homes. The buyrate number was a big success for the company. The popularity of Chavez's last pay-per-view made Top Rank rethink a potential HBO date in April, where Chavez would have faced Alfonso Gomez. They were very unhappy with the way HBO was switching around the televised date for Chavez, and decided to keep the fighter on their in-house pay-per-views.

Malignaggi was planning on returning against Ngoudjo last December, but Showtime turned down the fight and instead televised a tripleheader with Antonio Tarver on top. To avoid being dependant on the cable networks, DiBella, like other promoters in the sport, may have to put on his own pay-per-view events, or partner with another promoter to keep Malignaggi's name in the loop.

In 2006, DiBella came together with Bob Arum of Top Rank, to battle HBO on a summer night of dueling pay-per-views. The promoters were angry with HBO for refusing to showcase Miguel vs. Cotto-Malignaggi on the date of June 10, and even more angry at the network's decision to televise Bernard Hopkins-Antonio Tarver on the same day, on pay-per-view.

Rather than cave in and agree to a new date offered by the network, DiBella and Arum took a stand and staged  their own pay-per-view on the same night. To make the battle more significant, the two pay-per-view events were held within a reasonable driving distance of each other on the East Coast.  DiBella and Arum staged their event in New York’s Madison Square Garden, while HBO and Golden Boy Promotions staged their show in Atlantic City. Because the events were held in the same target market, they not only battled for pay-per-view buys, but for ticket sales as well.

If Hatton decides to take his return in another direction by not fighting Malignaggi, DiBella may have a tough time landing a major televised date without a serious name on the other end.