Written by Scott Swerbinsky

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In a thrilling fight last night on pay per view, Miguel Cotto remained unbeaten in a tight win by decision over Paulie Malignaggi. Cotto continues to climb the pound for pound rankings, now likely in every pundits top 6-7 fighters in the entire sport. The Spoon Man watched live and recapped the fight for us. There are times when fighters lose where they actually win in the long run. I think that will be the case for Paul Malignaggi. 

Miguel Cotto won a hard fought decision last night in Madison Square Garden over the very game Malignaggi.  

About thirty seconds into the fight the two clashed heads opening a nice size gash above Malignagi’s eye. He had never been cut before and it showed. He had to throw his gameplan of counterpunching out the window.  Now he was forced to press the action versus the much stronger and powerful Cotto. Paulie was able to land at a good rate but was only able to hurt Miguel on very few shots. Half way thru the fight the right side of Malignaggi’s jaw was swollen pretty bad and blood was coming out of his mouth. That didn’t stop either fighter from showing what true heart is all about.  The two undefeated warriors showed the true grit takes to win all of your fights.  

At the end of the night, Cotto remained the only unbeaten. Two judges scored it 116-111 and the third had it 115-112. I had it 115-112 also. Malignaggi just couldn’t do enough damage to win some of the very close rounds. The win let Cotto retain his Welterweight title.

Not too many people gave Malignaggi a chance going into this fight. After seeing the heart and determination he has, he will be back in the title picture in the near future. He was classy in defeat, made no excuses, and said he will learn from his mistakes. I respect him so much more for the way he handled himself while getting beat up and never backing down. The fans also appreciated both of the two gladiators for giving everything they had.

After his win, Cotto expressed his plans of moving up to 147 pounds and possibly taking on Ricky Hatton. Talk about a must see fight. I just hope it happens.

There were a few undercard highlights also:

Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski knocked out some bum off the streets in 49 seconds. Robert Bell looked like he never fought before.

Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr won again impressively going to 26-0, and he’s only 20 years old.

In my eyes, I made the right call between the two pay per views. Every fight was action packed and Cotto vs Malignaggi was impressive.