By Jake Donovan
“Wait ‘til next year.”
Any self-respecting Brooklynite will proudly (or embarrassingly) recognize that phrase. It was the anthem for the old Ebbets Field faithful, back when there was still an Ebbets Field and the Dodgers resided in Brooklyn, and seemed to play well enough to just fall short to the rival Bronx Bombers each and every year. Not to mention their other city rivals, the New York Giants, including the infamous “shot heard ‘round the world”, when Bobby Thomson’s game-winning walk-off home-run to win a three-game playoff for the 1951 NL pennant after having trailed by as many as 13 ½ games midway through the summer.
For the Brooklyn Dodgers, “next year” was 1955, the only time they managed to upend their archrivals, the New York Yankees and win the World Series, after having fallen short against the Bronx Bombers in its past five attempts. They would lose the World Series the following year (the one where Don Larsen would toss the only perfect game in W.S. history) and then pack up and head west following the 1957 season, picking up five more World Series championships between then and now (including another against the Yanks in the strike-shortened 1981 season).
For outspoken Brooklynite Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi, it’s been a career of “wait ‘til next year” moments. Even in coming off of a career-best 2007 campaign, one which has been, perhaps prematurely, hailed as Comeback of the Year by Ring magazine (more on that later), momentum has never been a big part of Malignaggi’s Magic act.
He’s hoping 2008 is the year in which everything changes for the better. The year begins with grudge match with Herman Ngoudjo this weekend in Atlantic City on SHOWTIME (Saturday, 9PM ET/PT). While a notable showcase bout, Malignaggi is looking to make a big splash and treat the fight as a springboard for bigger and better things to come, sooner rather than later.
“It was definitely a little frustrating. I was surprised how difficult it was to solidify my first defense,” says Malignaggi (23-1, 5KO) of his unwarranted 6 ½ month layoff following his career-best win over Lovemore N’Dou last June. “But that's all behind me. I only look at the positives. I don't dwell on anything negative. The positive is I have to fight on the fifth, and I only look to the future.”
The future has to be better than the past, in and out of the ring. Nothing has ever come easy for Malignaggi, abandoned by his father at a young age, and kicked out of high school during his years as a rebellious teenager in Bensonhurst. He didn’t realize it at the time, but Malignaggi’s life would permanently change on June 26, 1997, the first time he was introduced to Brooklyn’s famed Gleason’s Gym.
“I still remember my first day there, training with my old trainer, Willie Badillo. He was teaching me a jab and right hand in front of the mirror, but throwing them really slowly to get the form down correctly. I started with a good foundation. I wrapped my hands and thought it looked so cool."
The technique looked even better in the ring, where Malignaggi racked up his share of amateur titles, including a pair of National Amateur Championships in 2001 before turning pro that summer.
It would seem odd to claim rough sails for a top junior welterweight with just one loss, which came against one of the absolute best in the game in undefeated Miguel Cotto. But it’s been anything but smooth sails for Malignaggi, merely 6 ½ years into his career.
More so than the June ’06 loss to Cotto, which actually raised his stock more than set him back, the same hands that have racked up 23 professional wins have also served as his greatest detriment. At least four injuries and surgeries to his right mitt, the first coming in his 12th pro fight in the first of two fights against Paul Delgado, have managed to bring momentum to a screeching halt any time Malignaggi would just begin to hit his stride.
With most rising prospects rarely going more than two months between fights, the “Magic Man” saw disappearing acts of five months or longer four times in just the first four years of his career.
His luck appeared to change in 2006, the year where it seemed he and his supporters could stop chanting “Wait ‘Til Next Year.” It began with a dominant shutout win over respectable Donald Camarena on ESPN2, which would set up his dream assignment four months later, a showdown with Cotto at Madison Square Garden, mere subway stops from Paulie’s hometown.
Malignaggi egged on Cotto throughout the pre-fight buildup, including chugging down bottled water prior to the weigh-in, mocking Cotto’s struggles with making weight. He played the familiar role of the enemy, even with the fight just outside of his backyard, as the weekend belonged to all things Boricua, with the fight falling on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade. While Paulie talked – and talked, and talked, and talked – in the months, weeks, days and hours leading up to the fight, Cotto let his fists do all of the talking, dropping Malignaggi in the second – the only time Paulie’s hit the deck as a pro – and battering him throughout en route to a decisive points win. Malignaggi showed balls galore, fighting back to the bitter end despite enduring such a brutal beating, his disfigured face needed the remainder of ’06 to heal.
Still, Malignaggi took his lumps, and the loss, like a man.
“I lost the fight. It was a learning experience. I'm not a sore loser. If I lose the fight, I lost the fight. Miguel Cotto's a great champion. At the same time, one day I'd like to get a rematch. I was a little inexperienced.
“I do believe I gave Cotto his toughest defense in the 140 pound division. Maybe one day we'll do it again.”
Malignaggi’s done his part toward earning it, winning nearly every round he fought in 2007. The first came in February, when the Brooklyn bad boy played the B.A.D. circuit, in making his HBO Boxing After Dark debut with his points win over lightweight contender Edner Cherry. Despite pitching a virtual shutout, Malignaggi’s brutal honesty in his self-assessment surfaced, insisting in the post-fight that it wasn’t the type of performance that would allow him to call out linear junior welterweight king Ricky Hatton, that there was more work to be done.
Four months later, Malignaggi was ready. A ninth-round knockdown was all but the icing on the cake in a near-perfect performance against Lovemore N’Dou, the win coming less than two weeks after the premiere of his award-winning documentary, aptly titled “Magic Man.” The documentary detailed Malignaggi’s rise through the pro ranks, and the road to his showdown with Miguel Cotto. The N’Dou fight proved that there was plenty of reason to keep the cameras rolling, perhaps getting started on a more successful sequel.
However, it became quiet on the Malignaggi set in the second half of 2007. Momentum was once again unwillingly squandered, though for the first time it wasn’t due to an injury. Perhaps a victim of market saturation, Paulie and his faithful promoter and close friend Lou DiBella, who’s been with him since his pro debut, were unable to land a fight on any of the major networks for the remainder of the year.
Late in the year, DiBella was able to hammer out a deal with Showtime, allowing Malignaggi to serve as the headline act to kick off the 2008 season for America’s #1 Fight Network. The new surroundings – Malignaggi fighting his first Showtime Championship Boxing main event – were not cause enough for Paulie to dive right in head-first, tearing into his mandatory challenger, Canada-based Herman Ngoudjo (16-1, 9KO) in hyping up the January 5 fight at Bally’s Casino in Atlantic City.
“He caught me a little off guard talking crap. I haven't disrespected him until (now). Now I have no problem. I looked at him as a workman like type of fighter. But now he's a workman type of fighter with a big mouth. So I'm going to enjoy beating the crap out of this guy.”
Like Malignaggi, Ngoudjo enjoyed a career-best campaign in the first half of 2007 before being forced to sit out the second half. The year began with a controversial split-decision loss to Jose Luis Castillo on HBO in a fight many felt should’ve went to the Cameroon-born boxer. Five months later, Ngoudjo found himself on the favorable end of a close call, eking out a split nod over divisional gatekeeper Randall Bailey in a bout that saw both fighters hit the deck.
Among many other things, the biggest difference between the 2007 campaigns for these two combatants is the margin of the final score. The final outcome was in doubt for both of Ngoudjo’s bouts, whereas the reading of the scorecards was a mere formality in Paulie’s two fights.
The margin of victory factor is nothing new to Malignaggi, which is why he believes Ngoudjo will soon discover he’s in way over his head this weekend.
“I’m the best he fought. Castillo and Bailey don't count. You know my track record… do I ever not win impressively? I think pretty much every time I won, I've either had a knockout or won every round of every fight I've had.”
Naturally, promoter agrees.
“His rounds won to rounds lost has to be one of the most impressive in all of boxing,” says Lou DiBella of Malignaggi’s margin of victory, having only officially lost 7 rounds by means of consensus scoring in his 23 combined wins. “He won every round in his last two fights. He might have given Cherry one round and he had a complete shutout against N'dou. That’s 21 out of 22 if you're being kind to Cherry, who looked pretty impressive since Paulie beat him.”
Malignaggi’s looked impressive in almost all of his fights, and is now bracing for the possibility of a mid-year classic with Hatton, who despite losing to Floyd Mayweather last month, still returns to the division as its linear king. Of course, he still has Ngoudjo in his face for the moment, and perhaps one more hurdle even if he is to emerge victorious this weekend.
“The story is we have agreed we'll (rematch) Lovemore N’Dou,” explains DiBella. “But there are exceptions. If Paulie has an opportunity to fight a fight with Ricky Hatton, Lovemore would not stand in the way. But if our dance card is not full and we need a keep busy fight, then Lovemore will be that fight.”
One of at least three or four fights this year, if promoter and fighter have their way.
“He can't sit just the way he just sat,” insists DiBella. “And he's not the kind of fighter that wants to fight just twice a year. I'm counting that Paulie would fight at least three times this year, possibly four.”
Malignaggi’s happy so long as it won’t be more of the same.
“The busier, the better for me. You're only young once. I feel like I have to take advantage of these years. That's what I have to do right now.”
Just wait ‘til this year.
COMEBACK? WHERE DID HE GO?
While the sentiment behind Ring Magazine’s selection of Malignaggi as their Comeback Fighter of the Year can be appreciated, all it does is lend credence to the ever-growing concern that one loss ruins a fighter.
It took for back-to-back shutouts over respectable contenders in 2007 for the world to finally accept that Malignaggi was a force to be reckoned with in the junior welterweight division. He wasn’t held in that regard prior to the Cotto fight. If nothing else, his stock went up in defeat, in a small way lending some validity to many of Malignaggi’s previous claims of where he believed he ranked in the boxing world.
That said, it wasn’t like he lost to JOSE Miguel Cotto. He went the distance with one of the best in the game, an undefeated fighter just entering the prime of his career. Yeah, he took a beating throughout the fight. But he finished on his feet, head held high, and put to rest the public perception that he was nothing than a loud-mouth pretty boy who would fold at the first sign of trouble.
What 2007 did was confirm what many suspected after the Cotto fight – that win, lose or draw, Malignaggi will always prove to be a tough out. Let us also not forget that 2007 was just the sixth year of Malignaggi’s career, having now just entered his prime. We’re not talking Fernando Vargas or David Reid, who peaked – and fizzled – early.
So where exactly did Malignaggi go, that his 2007 campaign warranted a “comeback” label?
MO’ TIME ON SHOWTIME
While the first Saturday of ’08 marks the debut of Showtime Championship Boxing, the preceding night plays host to the season premiere of Showtime’s critically acclaimed ShoBox series. On tap this Friday (11PM ET/PT) are the return of the Peterson brothers – Anthony and Lamont – who appear on the network for the first time since their April 2006 debut.
As has long been the standard of the prospect-level series, there are no soft touches in either slot, with somebody’s “0” having to go in both fights. Anthony Peterson, prospect-cum-lightweight contender and eyeing a possible showdown with either fellow unbeaten lightweights Michael Katsidis or Juan Diaz, takes on Guadalupe Rosales, while Lamont takes on Brazilian knockout artist Antonio Mesquita in a 12-round junior welterweight scrap.
All credit to the driving force behind the Peterson brothers. The tandem of trainer and co-manager Barry Hunter, co-manager Shelly Finkel and Mid-South based promotional outfit Prize Fight Promotions, the Petersons have been expertly brought along, both knocking on the door of world title shots (linear or alphabet) in just their fourth year as pros.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END – OF THE GREATEST TV SHOW EVER
HBO’s boxing schedule doesn’t begin for another two weekends, unless you count the January 10 premiere of “Countdown to Jones-Trinidad”, a 30 minute segment previewing the January 19 HBO PPV show between faded legends Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad. But this Sunday marks the season premiere of “The Wire” (Sunday, 9PM ET/PT), with the show entering its fifth and final season.
The first four seasons have focused on the drug trade – from kingpin all the way down to the recruitment of pre-teens, the dock workers, politics, the school system and of course the police department, while accentuating the decline of a major American city (Baltimore, MD). This year, which was inexplicably shortened from 13 episodes to 10, will focus on media consumption, detailing what stories get told, and more importantly, the ones that don’t get told, as well as homelessness.
Despite serving as perhaps the most critically-acclaimed show on television today, “The Wire” has yet to garner a single Emmy nomination, never mind a win. Considering the industry’s overwhelming willingness to reward the garbage that was the final season of The Sopranos, perhaps the boys on the Beltway finally get their comeuppance come the 2008 Emmys.
In other words, wait ‘til this year.
READ MY LIPS: NO MORE ALPHABET SOUP
Finally, a message to all of my fellow boxing hacks. Let 2008 be the year where we form a cohesive unit, put aside petty website wars (or even battles within your own establishment) and agendas, and just simply write about boxing.
Let 2008 be the year where we stop bitching and moaning about alphabet organizations, whether or not Ring Titles should be considered valid, and why we need to distinguish a difference between who’s the champ and who’s the best. Let a great fight just be a great fight; don’t preface it with some crybaby nonsense about some absurd (and oft obscure) interim title being on the line, or the politics behind so-and-so being unfairly stripped.
You can’t have it both ways: either the belts are meaningless, or you come full circle and admit that you’re consumed with alphabet politics. I decided on the former a long time ago, and especially since joining BoxingScene.com. It’s time the rest of the industry do the same. Otherwise, all you’re doing is feeding to their egos. As Don King (himself a huge fan of the alphabets, or at least their open door policy toward receiving cash donations) often says, “Negative publicity is still publicity.”
Jake “The Jake-of-All-Trades” Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, and presently serves on the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. His column runs every Tuesday on BoxingScene.com. Please feel free to submit any comments or questions to Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com
