Split Decision: Malignaggi wins bout, but hears boos as big-time boxing makes Barclays debut
Paulie Malignaggi did the unimaginable Saturday night at the Barclays Center. He won the fight, but lost the crowd.
The 31-year-old Bensonhurst native followed decisive wins by fellow Brooklynites Danny Jacobs, Dmitry Salita and Peter Quillin by eking out a controversial split decision victory over Mexico’s Pablo Cesar Cano, causing an uproar in the state-of-the-art arena, which hosted the first night of championship boxing in our fair borough since the 1930s.
Malignaggi, who didn’t have his WBA welterweight title on the line after Cano failed to make weight Friday, was a 118-109 loser on one of the judges’ cards while taking the other two by a narrow 114-113 score. He even suffered a humbling knockdown in the 11th round, getting caught by a sharp right hand by the bloodied but game Cano, who fought through a nasty cut over his left eye.