Rigondeaux beats Addy; Hamer decimates Ali; Malignaggi-Khan may be in the works

On the main event of tonight's Broadway Boxing card, uber-prospect Guillermo Rigondeaux cruised to a boring and predictable decision over Lante Addy.  For about the first 20 seconds, it was almost a fight, but the southpaw Rigondeaux set up a big left straight with a right jab that knocked the hapless African down almost immediately.  From there on out, it was pure survival mode for Addy for 8 more excruciating rounds.  WIth the crowd consistently booing, Rigondeaux was just throwing a judge jab constantly while occasionally throwing a scoring punch, and Addy was mostly just shelling up or running.  This is what happens when you have a fighter who's content to win rounds and a fighter who's content to stay on his feet.  While Guillermo managed to win the wide unanimous decision, 80-71 on all three cards, I have to wonder if this is what he'll look like when he steps up in class.  His opponent was willing to show him nothing, and Rigondeaux reverted to amateur form, throwing punches to score and with no bad intent whatsoever.  Guillermo moves to 4-0 and remains on the fast track to a title, although now I have more doubts about whether he can ever become a star.

On the co-feature, Tor Hamer absolutely destroyed Nasir Ali in one of the sadder displays I've seen in a while.  Legitimate gatekeeper Domonic Jenkins was to be his opponent, and Ali took the fight on a day's notice.  Only a few seconds into the first round, Hamer nailed Ali with a left to the body and a right to the head, and Ali went down in a crumple.  He got up a couple seconds later, but just stayed leaning against the ropes, facing the crowd, and apparently refusing to continue.  Seconds after the fight ended, Lou DiBella, who was schmoozing it up with the crowd, asked me what happened, and when I told him what happened, he started shouting "WITHHOLD HIS PURSE!"  Which is about what he deserves.  Hamer moves to 8-0, and hopefully we'll get to see him in there with a real opponent in the near future. 

Elsewhere on the card, 8-0 Gabriel Bracero defeated 6-3 Carl McNickles (on Boxrec, it says McNickols, but his trunks said McNickles) in the bout of the night.  While the slippery Bracero clearly had Carl outclassed, McNickles tried to make it a fight, and the two went to war a few times during the bout.  Bracero doesn't look world-class, but it looks like he could be an exciting regional-level fighter.  Also on the undercard, relatively unimpressive Luis Del Valle scored a TKO2 against Noe Lopez when Lopez broke his hand and was unable to continue.  Also, amateur star Christian Martinez knocked out Gabriel Morris in spectacular fashion.  While he wasn't fighting the best opposition in the world, his talent was pretty apparent, and I'd say he has the highest upside of the undercard fighters.

The biggest news of the night, however, probably came from the mouth of Lou DiBella.  Paulie Malignaggi was at the fight, hamming it up with the crowd and looking extremely unscathed for a guy who just fought five days ago.  DiBella came into the ring after the Hamer fight, and said that he's trying to make a fight between Paulie Malignaggi and Amir Khan next. This seems to make perfect sense, and is a good way to make some money for his fighter.  Khan has only fought twice on US TV, once on a small pay per view, and once on the undercard of the worst rated WCB (Calzaghe-Manfredo) in HBO history.  He's been saying he wants to make a splash in the US market, and Malignaggi might be the perfect opponent to do it with.  He has a name, he can bring a house, and he can't crack an egg.  Now that Khan has changed his style at the credit of Freddie Roach, I think he can outbox just about anyone.  But his chin is still as bad as anyone's.  Ever.  Malignaggi is a notoriously light hitter, and while he'd probably lose to Khan, it's a good way to get another HBO fight, and even 'hands of glass' Malignaggi might be able to knock out 'chin of glass' Khan.  Hopefully they can make progress with this, because it's certainly a fight I'd be interested in seeing.