Malignaggi gets his revenge against 'El Torito'

Pick of the weekend action was probably Paulie 'Magic Man' Malignaggi's unanimous points win over the Texan Juan 'Baby Bull' Diaz in Chicago. Back in August Malignaggi was on the receiving end of a dubious decision in favour of Diaz when the two fought in Juan's home town of Houston. This time there could be little doubt Malignaggi deserved the victory and all three judges scored the fight 116-111. Malignaggi dominated the early exchanges, cleverly using his speed to stay out of reach and landing the greater number of punches. But Malignaggi failed to press home his advantage, insisting instead on showboating and talking to the crowd, his corner and even the TV commentary team at one stage rather than finishing his opponent inside the distance (perhaps why he's only won five contests by knock-out in a 30 fight career). Diaz took a couple of rounds in the middle stages of the fight before he was wrongly ruled to have been knocked down in the tenth. I've never been Malignaggi's biggest fan, I didn't like the way he recently hinted that Manny Pacquiao might be on drugs because he'd been able to withstand Cotto's punches where Malignaggi had failed, and nothing I saw on Saturday changed my opinion of the Brooklyn man. He's been mentioned as a future opponent for Amir Khan as has Timothy Bradley who also fought his way to a points victory on Saturday against Lamont Peterson. But a Bradley v Malignaggi fight seems more likely before Khan can get his teeth into either one of them.
There was also, lest I forget, a world heavyweight title fight on Saturday night. Not that I watched it. I'm told Vitali Klitschko bored his way to a points win over the previously unbeaten American Kevin Johnson. It underlined once again just how badly the moribund heavyweight division needs David Haye and I'm glad to see both sides have reached a preliminary agreement for a fight next year. The fact that Klitschko could walk away from boxing for four years and pretty much pick up where he left off shows the dearth of talent in the sport's most high-profile division.