Malignaggi's nightmares come true in Houston, Diaz wins controversial decision

by SC on Aug 23, 2009 1:15 AM EDT in Post-Fight Analysis Comment 31 comments

Paulie Malignaggi feared a robbery in Houston against hometown fighter Juan Diaz. Bad Left Hook believes that's exactly what happened. (Photo via img.metro.co.uk)

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Paulie Malignaggi called out judge Gale Van Hoy, the other two judges, the Texas Athletic Commission, and referee Laurence Cole before he showed up in Houston to fight hometown fighter Juan Diaz. The only guy he didn't rip on, in fact, was Juan Diaz.

After a fight that many felt he won, Malignaggi still had no beef with Juan Diaz. But his nightmares came true when he lost 115-113, 116-112 and a ridiculous 118-110 -- from Van Hoy -- on the scorecards.

From my view, Malignaggi (26-3, 5 KO) largely dominated the fight defensively and with speed. He looked like the vintage Malignaggi that was a legit contender at 140 pounds. Diaz (35-2, 17 KO) did survive a bad cut this time around, and didn't fight badly. But he had a horrible time closing distance on the longer, taller, quicker Malignaggi, and it was Paulie that made much of the fight go.

It was also, it should be noted, a highly-entertaining style collision between two guys that came to mix it up and win. They both needed it badly, and fought like it. But it was Malignaggi, in my opinion, that won the bout. And I'm not alone. Bad Left Hook scored it 116-112 for Paulie. HBO's Harold Lederman scored it 115-113 for Malignaggi.

Malignaggi spoke bluntly about the sport after the fight, saying something close to the effect of, "Boxing is full of s**t. I used to love the sport. Boxing is full of s**t. The only reason I do it is for a good payday."

Paulie has legitimate gripes right now. He was robbed, I think. You may disagree, and that's fine, but I'm just talking about how I saw the fight. And it was a Malignaggi win.

The main undercard bout between Malcolm Klassen and Robert Guerrero was called by the HBO team as a dominant Guerrero win, and Guerrero got the unanimous nod. But I scored it a draw and felt Malcolm Klassen acquitted himself quite nicely. I am not arguing a Guerrero victory; not at all. What I am arguing is that he cruised to victory. He did not.
Daniel Jacobs won a tough fight with Ishe Smith. The bout looked exactly like what most of us expected. Ishe Smith was outworked, and Jacobs won on pure talent. But Jacobs also probably learned a lot, which is best case scenario with an opponent like Ishe.

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I agree with you

I just finished watching the fight and In my Opinion I had Malignaggi winning the fight, maybe not by much but he did win that fight, the 118-110 score was ridiculous

by Cangri787 on Aug 23, 2009 1:30 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeap, Malignaggi by a point or two

And I’m glad he went off the way he did, much respect Paulie.

by Full Throttle on Aug 23, 2009 1:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm with ya'll !!

Maliinaggi predicted it right. He won the fight and Texas people took it from him. He may have only won this fight with a KO.
Something should be done about this pro sport that needs a more consistant and correct manner of scoring a fight without having 2 judges from the state, or maybe the city where the fight is held. And the third from a neighboring state. Where was this ref from? Houston?
Van Hoy should never be allowed to judge a beauty contest, much less a professional fight!
I’m done.
I got here trying to find live talk about this. I’m not a real fan of Paulie, but he’s absolutely right about what happened to him tonight.

by Skilz853 on Aug 23, 2009 1:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Fighters should be judged on the fight,not from where they are from. Plain and simple

by Full Throttle on Aug 23, 2009 1:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

anyone watch the azteca card? taking up a bit of space on my dvr, and its still going on right now.

The Dude Abides

by battle axe of doom on Aug 23, 2009 1:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Don't get Azteca :-(

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Aug 23, 2009 2:03 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think Paulie pissed these judges off by calling them out. Thats not to say this would not have happened anyway if he didn’t.

by Full Throttle on Aug 23, 2009 1:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

If a judge called it 115-113 Diaz, I wouldn’t have blinked. If two judges did that, I would’ve disagreed with it, but only in a “bad call” way, based on two rounds in particular. I’d also respect guys who think Paulie dominated, but I’d disagree with them too. It was just a damn close fight, with several rounds that could’ve gone both ways depending on what you were looking at.

The most important part of this result is the 118-110 card. That is simply horseshit. That is the sort of thing that would be investigated in an ideal world. We could argue the result, but nobody with a shred of sanity would agree with that card.

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Aug 23, 2009 2:01 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Lost before he got in the ring?

I think that unless he absolutely obliterated Diaz from the start, he may have lost what could have been a close fight before he got in the ring. How often do you hear about fighters singling out a judge BEFORE the fight the way he did? And it wasn’t as if he complained about just one aspect of the fight, but he railed on everything outside of Diaz and the concessions in the Toyota Center.

It may not be fair, but this isn’t like he’s one of those malcontents that earned a bit of cred within the industry like say Bernard Hopkins had over the years. Maybe this won’t completely ruin Malignaggi’s chances for a “good payday”, but he made it pretty damn tough.

Jason Clinkscales
A Sports Scribe
http://asportsscribe.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/asportsscribe
http://newyorkbeacon.net

by Jason Clinkscales on Aug 23, 2009 2:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Diaz himself would have called it better

Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"

by Matt Miller on Aug 23, 2009 2:03 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs

BS

FWIW I had the fight a draw, though I may have been off my rocker giving the 8th and 9th rounds to Diaz. I was hating Paulie for making all the noise he made before the fight…turns out he was right to be paranoid.
Missed the Smith-Jacobs fight…was it worth it to watch the replay?

by FunnyBigHat on Aug 23, 2009 2:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Jacobs-Smith was a good scrap. Smith really poked some holes in Jacobs, and this tape will be a chart topping hit for Daniel’s future opponents in my opinion.

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Aug 23, 2009 2:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Malignaggi was robbed, 118-110 is completely ridiculous. He was right, boxing is full of shit. I’m glad he spoke up. We need more guys like that in boxing.

by traydawg on Aug 23, 2009 2:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

apparently jose luis castillo fought on box azteca tonight. he KO’d some dude in 3 or 4 rounds. will someone please donate 1 million dollars to JLCastillo, and force him to retire ffs

The Dude Abides

by battle axe of doom on Aug 23, 2009 2:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I didn't want to bump this down the front page

But here’s Paulie’s post-fight rant:

http://www.badlefthook.com/2009/8/23/999136/paulie-maignaggis-post-fight

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Aug 23, 2009 2:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I bumped it. It needs to be seen/heard.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Aug 23, 2009 3:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm still pissed

I wonder if there were any crazy line movements to go along with this fight.

That said, as promised, I bought Google ads for Van Hoy.

Hope for accountability is laughable.

by ttagaris on Aug 23, 2009 4:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wow!

Just finished watching the fight on the west coast, yikes he got robbed. Seriously, the magic man fought like a man on 5 kinds of uppers and really outboxed Diaz. The outburst was definitely warranted because, before the fight, he called this.
Currently angry at boxing. This sh*t happens too often and it kills careers. The 116 and 118 judges should be not only investigated, but fined and fired. Hometown fights are great, hometown decisions are not.

by waldo47 on Aug 23, 2009 4:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hometown fights are great, hometown decisions are not.

Absolutely. I don’t want fighters to be discouraged from traveling the way Paulie did. One city that gets a lot of love in North America is Montreal. They turn out in BIG numbers for “their” fighters, but the judges and officials largely have made a myth out of “hometown” decisions up there. Texas has a bad reputation, and this just made it worse.

Also to be clear, NONE of this is a shot at Juan Diaz. He fought hard for 12 rounds. I felt he obviously lost, and it appears many agree with that, but he didn’t score the fight. Juan did his job. Paulie did his better. Period.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Aug 23, 2009 4:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Uhhhgg

I dont know what to say or even think about the current state of boxing anymore. I also had it 116-112 for Malignaggi, but have been watching long enough to know that there will always be judgmental fluctuation…but come on…not not like that.

Diaz had some sparse, but more effective punching – and Malignaggi had better overall ring generalship. In my own opinion, Malignaggi did what it took to win a tough 36 minute fight. But a unanimous decision with those kind of score cards, makes me ill.

I will watch again, but I never saw where an “accidental headbutt” caused the second cut to Diaz left eye. And Laurence Cole first attempting to say the cut was from a Malignaggi LEFT elbow push-off to the LEFT EYE of Diaz let me know where this fight was gonna end up after the 5th.

The fact that #1 Laurence Cole (even without any research or knowledge…he just looks fucking sketchy), happens to be the son of Dick Cole, who is the director for the Texas Boxing Commission, should let us all know – not only why he hasn’t been fired yet – but proof that the behind the scenes shenanigans going on in boxing today are intruding on the basic point of 1 vs 1 combat. #2 is the fact that he and his father sell insurance to PROMOTERS (http://www.boxingcoverage.com/) which bottom line GUARANTEE victory to the highest bidder, is more sickening than that dude that packed the dead playboy model in a suitcase and dropped her body off at a public park dumpster with no fingers or teeth.

Houston is now even worst than Montreal in my book. And Golden Boy is brewing nothing other than insider connected bullshit rigged records.

Max Kellerman also did nothing but solidify his role as nothing but a corporate whore during the end fight interviews – even though it looked as he wanted to push the issue, he was thinking of his next paycheck more. Props to Malignaggi for calling bullshit both before and after the fight. And props to Diaz for fighting a great fight. It was a hell of an entertaining bout.

I probably wont hold to it, but I doubt I will be buying the Mayweather-Marquez fight, or any other Golden Boy promoted card until Shane fights again. Great way to help transition real fight enthusiasts away from boxing – and towards MMA.

by benco on Aug 23, 2009 7:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I am PISSED

I had a fair amount of money on Paulie (Dec or Tech Dec) at 7/1.

I felt Paulie was favourite when the fight was announced, and I tipped the fight to others too… They have all lost money, and although none of them blame me, I am still pissed that people that follow my advice and trust my judgement have lost money.

My thoughts for this fight, before and after, are here;

http://www.cueclubinternational.com/viewtopic.php?forum=1&topic=30872

I’m getting sick of judges robbing me. I backed Gevor to beat Sturm at 3/1, too. It makes me so angry that I make the right call, and then three crooked dickwads cost me money.

Boxing is the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight. (Omar Epps)

by Chaos100 on Aug 23, 2009 9:44 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That does completely suck.

Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"

by Matt Miller on Aug 23, 2009 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was just reminded, I also bet Holyfield vs the Russian Ape, at 4/1...

Sucks to be me, huh? :)

I was considering Huck by KO next weekend, so you might all want to stay away from that….

lol

Boxing is the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight. (Omar Epps)

by Chaos100 on Aug 23, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i agree completely

i had it 116-112 too, and I felt like Malignaggi completely controlled that fight. As the fight wore on Diaz really had no success getting inside, and I felt Paulie’s jabs were doing some real damage too. Even the rounds that were deemed “close” looked to me like they were essentially 30 seconds of good inside work by Diaz and 150 seconds of Paulie controlling him on the outside.

I also agree with your point on Guerrero-Klassen; I had a 115-113 Guerrero win, but the HBO guys (who are great) seemed to think it was Ghost in a landslide. I think they may have felt that because Klassen felt so confident coming in, and then looked so passive for much of the fight. Klassen had a lot of power on his punches, but he needed to be more active and needed to throw more counter-punches defensively instead of just blocking the whole time

by Calogero on Aug 23, 2009 11:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I guess I'm the contrarian

I had Diaz 115-113. As soon as the 116-112 score was read Isaid ‘Paulie was right.’ And then 118-110 which was just remarkable. There is no way that fight was almost a shut out. Like someone said last night, it’s a shame that everyone knew if the fight was close, the decision was going to Diaz

by cardscott5 on Aug 23, 2009 12:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I had Paulie by 116-112, he was robbed and I thought that he spoke very well, clearly, and with an appropriate amount of outrage in the post-fight. I actually appreciated his candor with Max.

Paulie certainly expected the shit/corrupt judging, and I certainly thought it was a possibility pre-fight. What I didn’t expect was the bullshit from Max in the booth. To me, Max tried to justify the decision in a ‘good for boxing’ argument with his ‘economic interests’ junk. I don’t care what style or ethnicity/hometown is good for boxing. The worst thing for boxing is latent corruption, especially when even the commentators bolster its existence.

by lcollins1 on Aug 23, 2009 1:46 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

I didn’t really know what to make of Max’s post-fight ramble. It felt like he was trying to just say that was WHY it happened — and he’s probably right. But it did almost feel like he wanted to justify that reasoning, which is inexcusable. Why the fuck did they fight if Diaz was always going to win? Why have anyone fight? Marketability = winning is great for pro wrestling, but this is a sport.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Aug 23, 2009 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I personally didn't think Max

behaved poorly here. I put it all, every bit of it, on the judges. The HBO commentators made pretty clear that they thought the decision was BS. Maybe they could have done more, but they DID buck the pressure commentators experience to smooth over BS like this. Though his commentating during the Ghost / Klassen fight was garbage, I didn’t sense that Max was covering up for the judges during the main event.

Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"

by Matt Miller on Aug 23, 2009 2:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i guarantee you lampley would have been a beast after the decision.

The Dude Abides

by battle axe of doom on Aug 23, 2009 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Lampley is the best on these kinds of things.

Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"

by Matt Miller on Aug 23, 2009 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also agreed.

I’d love to sit those three judges in a room,make them watch the fight again on a big screen, and ask them how in the blue fuck they managed to fuck it up so badly.

Make them score it again, and break a finger for every round they give to Diaz over the quotient of 4…

Ok, the last bit might be a bit extreme. Maybe just one of those Mr T adverts where he flies at them in a tank?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIv0NnALMcE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi4DEdUmA6A

“Hey fool!! Quit your jibba-jabber!! I see you scoring that first round for Diaz again, you’re gonna meet my friend PAIN…”

Boxing is the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight. (Omar Epps)

by Chaos100 on Aug 23, 2009 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs