By David Martinez
In a fight that I didn’t expect to be as close as it was, Adrien Broner (27-0 / 22 by KO) won a twelve round spilt decision to claim the WBA welterweight title over Paulie Malignaggi (32-5 / 7 by KO) at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York.
Paulie stated the bout fast clearly winning the first two rounds and was ahead on my scorecard, four rounds to one, after five rounds. Up to that point Paulie was more effective with his punches and threw more, but from the sixth round to the ninth Broner came on with the harder punching power.
After eight rounds I had the fight even, but Broner closed the show winning three of the last four rounds. My scorecard was 115 to 113, in a closer fight than most expected – including myself. The official scorecards were 115-113, 117-111 Broner, 115-113 Malignaggi.
In a lackluster heavyweight bout, Seth Mitchell (26-1-1 / 19 by KO) avenged his lone loss in a rematch against Johnathon Banks (29-2-1 / 19 by KO) by winning a 12 round unanimous decision.
The opening bout, televised by Showtime, saw Sakio Bika (32-5-2 / 21 by KO) win the vacant WBC super middleweight title over previously unbeaten Marco Antonio Periban (20-1 / 13 by KO) by a close unanimous 12 round decision.