By Rick Reeno

Last Sunday in Donetsk, Ukraine, Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7KOs) had one of the best performances of his career with a ninth round stoppage of previously undefeated  Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21KOs) to capture the WBA's welterweight championship.

Malignaggi controlled the majority of the fight and the contest became more one-sided in the later rounds. By the ninth round, Senchenko's left eye was nearly closed shut and his face was a swollen mess. As he continued to take punishment, veteran referee Steve Smoger had seen enough and stopped the fight.

Following the win, Malignaggi was in disbelief when he was informed that one judge, Jean-Louis Legland of France, had him down by two points and the other two judges, Francisco Martinez of New Zealand and Guillermo Pineda of Panama, had him winning - but their scores were very close and the fight was still very much up for grabs at the time of the stoppage.

"I was up close on two scorecards I was told, and I was down by two points on the French judge's scorecard, Jean-Louis Legland. Whenever you see a scorecard like this, you say 'what was the guy watching?' These guys know what they're watching. They are purposely being corrupt. Whenever you see a judge with a blatantly wrong scorecard, you shouldn't be asking 'what was that guy watching' - you should be asking 'what did they give the guy so they could buy him.' In actuality, nobody is that stupid, especially people who professionally judge fights," Malignaggi said to BoxingScene.com.

Most major outlets had Malignaggi well ahead at the time of the stoppage. However, Malignaggi did his own investigation work.

"I talked to Stevie Wonder the other day and he had me ahead and that guy is blind," Malignaggi said.

Editor's Note: The official scores have yet to be released