By Mark Vester
At the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, a battle for former champions saw Juan Diaz (34-3, 17 KOs) win a twelve round unanimous decision over Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi (26-3, 5 KOs). The scores 116-112, 115-113 and 118-110 for Diaz.
Malignaggi came out very fast in the first round with a hard jab that was peppering the much physcially smaller Diaz. During the end of the round, a punch from Diaz opened up an existing cut above the left eye of Malignaggi. Diaz came out landing some very good combinations in the second round. Malignaggi backed away and taunted Diaz after being hit with the shots. Diaz and Malignaggi exchanged punches during the end of the second round and a cut opened up above the left eye of Diaz. Malignaggi began to land some very good punches in the third, and Diaz's face began to swell up so many of the incoming shots. Diaz tried to come on in the final minute and Malignaggi held him on the inside.
Malignaggi started landing some good jabs at the start of the fourth. He appeared to stagger from a Diaz hook in the middle of the round. He tried to pour on the punches, Malignaggi was able to use defense to escape away. In the fifth, Diaz was real strong in the first half and Malignaggi used movement and a good jab to control the second half. A second cut opened up around Diaz's left eye from a clash of heads in the fifth. The sixth round was close. Diaz landed the better punches. Malignaggi landed a lot more shots.
Malignaggi was on the move for a better part of the seventh. Diaz followed him around, throwing and landing good shots. The eight round saw Malignaggi give Diaz a boxing lesson. He jabbed, moved, countered and turned Diaz from various angles in the three minutes. The ninth round similiar to the eight, Malignaggi used his boxing abilities to control most of the action. Diaz continued to apply a lot of pressure, moved forward and tried to land a lot of big punches. The tenth round saw Malignaggi again use his boxing skills to control the action. Neither guy was able to land anything big, yet it was Malignaggi throwing more punches and piling up his count. Diaz couldn't catch up to him in the eleventh. He tried charging and throwing. Diaz was able to land some but not enough to slow Malignaggi down. Malignaggi threw many jabs and even a few right hands.
Both fighters let their hands go in the twelfth. Diaz pressed forward with combinations, Malignaggi stood his ground at times to exchange but mostly used his feet to move and jab. In the final twenty seconds, Malignaggi and Diaz exchanged punches at close range.
