Monday, May 26, 2008

Malignaggi vs Ndou

The fight was about even after the first 6 rounds. Up to that point, Ndou had landed the much harder shots. His jab was stronger and his long right hands were surprisingly accurate and effective. Malignaggi gave more movement and punched in combinations but his light flurries had no effect on N'dou. Malignaggi tried to control the distance early, but his lack of mobility allowed N'dou to to land repeatedly with hard, eye-catching shots. In the second half of the fight, Malignaggi tired badly and landed nothing of significance, whereas N'dou rattled him a number of times, buckling paulie's knees and and continuing to score effectively even when his back was on the ropes with uppercuts and overhand rights. Paulie hardly landed a punch in the last two rounds, whereas N'dou at least scored with solid shots from the outside and in close quarters. I had it 9-3 N'dou...although I could accept 8-4. Still, it was obvious from BEFORE the fight that N'dou would have to KO malignaggi to get the win.