Adrien Broner’s victory over Paulie Malignaggi does raise a big question

Paulie Malignaggi beefed about not getting the decision in his welterweight title defense against Adrien Broner on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. There is no question that Broner deserved the decision, and he got it. That only two of the three judges scored him the winner was really the only controversy.

Judges Tom Schreck and Glenn Feldman had Broner winning by respective scores of 117-111 and 115-113. The third judge, Tom Miller, somehow had it for Malignaggi by a 115-113 count. Of course, that is not surprising because we see a lot of seemingly off-base scores in this business. Too many.

There was one question that came out of this: How is Broner’s punching power at the 147-pound welterweight division? He moved up two weight classes to challenge Malignaggi. Meaning he went from the 135-pound lightweight division to 147 pounds. He certainly landed the harder punches Saturday, but that’s not saying much because Malignaggi can’t crack much at all.

But Broner never really came that close to decking Malignaggi, even though he connected on an array of clean punches to the chin. Malignaggi has big-time heart, but it’s not like he’s never been decked before. Heck, in his fight before Broner, Malignaggi tasted the canvas in the 11th round of his title defense against Pablo Cesar Cano last October. Cano has nice, but not terrific, power. And Broner (27-0, 22 KOs) entered known as one of the hardest punchers in the game, pound-for-pound.

In fairness, it was only Broner’s first bout at welterweight. Let’s see what he does if he stays in that division.

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