Willie Pep Rolls Over in His Grave

So I finally managed to check out the Malignaggi/Ngoudjo fight from Saturday night, and in that I knew it was a controversial decision, I kept score. I came out with a draw on points, 114-114. But on the whole I felt like it was one of those fights you could have scored either way. Even on my card, there were two things I was doubtful about that could have turned the tide. I thought the seventh was nearly a 10-8 round for Ngoudjo, but I didn't give it to him. And I gave Ngoudjo the 11th, but it was a very close round and I considered making it a 10-10.

On the whole, there were five rounds that were very difficult to call - 3-5, 8 and 11. How you saw those was the differential in the fight, because to my eyes Paulie definitely won rounds 1, 2, 6, 9 and 10 and Ngoudjo definitely won 7 and 12. Obviously, I had Ngoudjo winning four of the five toss-up rounds to arrive at the draw.

So what does that mean? Not much. I've been reading a lot about how Ngoudjo was robbed and though I think the one judge who saw it 117-111 was certainly excessive, I have no problem with Paulie getting the UD. He is the champ after all, and everybody knows you have to conclusively beat the champ to take his belt. Could anyone really watch that ugly mess of a fight and think that Ngoudjo conclusively beat the Magic Man?

Paulie was the big loser on the night anyway, because he was anything but magic in there, and took a long stroll down queer street in the seventh that to his credit he openly admitted to after the bout. As I said to Franchise today, Ngoudjo is the type of B-level fighter who's going to make a top-level guy think for about seven rounds. He's the most disturbing type of human chess problem, awkward, long, athletic, up for as much rough-housing as he thinks he needs, never quite doing what you think he's going to. But the true matador knows how to handle a difficult bull and make the best of the situation. I think back to the Castillo/Ngoudjo bout, when Castillo struggled with the aggressiveness of his Cameroon-born opponent and also seemed, to put it mildly, like he hadn't exactly trained at full tilt for the contest. On the whole that night, Castillo looked like he had other things on his mind, and nevertheless around the eighth he figured out Ngoudjo's various tics and propensities and closed it out on auto-pilot.

Paulie's hasn't got anywhere near Castillo's level of ring intelligence and he showed it last night. He did, however, listen to his trainer, which may have saved him his belt, because after that seventh-round onslaught Buddy McGirt gave him two pieces of advice that proved crucial - stop moving to your left directly into that chopping right hand, and stop bailing out to escape Ngoudjo's lunging attacks. Malignaggi made both adjustments and they helped him grab back the momentum. He didn't eat another big right after that and he was no longer ceding the center of the ring, which shifted the vibe of the bout.

But let's face it - he still looked like crap. He's all left hand, didn't throw an effective right all night. He moved well but not that well, he ate a lot of head-snappers that he shouldn't have, he obviously has all the power of an under-trained flyweight and he got completely thrown off his game by clumsy, rough-and-tumble, high-pressure tactics. In short, he is tailor-made to get completely assassinated by one Richard Hatton of Manchester. Then again, it's hard to imagine that this lastest outing from Malignaggi will have Sir Fatton climbing off his pub-stool anytime soon.

One final note - Al Bernstein for some godforsaken reason felt the need during the broadcast to draw comparisons between Paulie and Willie Pep, which is just a disgrace. I hate to go all cigar-chomper on this one, but the two names should never be uttered in the same sentence, and I don't care if they are both Sicilian-born. The Will o'the Wisp has to have been the lightest on his feet and the most beautiful to watch and just the most artful boxer who ever lived except perhaps for Pernell. To remind the world of this, I attached some highlights below from the fourth and final Pep/Saddler bout, the conclusion of the greatest boxer/puncher series the featherweight division has ever known. Even in defeat, Willie Pep was poetry and everyone else was prose.