In a junior welterweight fight, former undefeated lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-2, 17 KOs) defeated former IBF junior welterweight champion Paul Malignaggi (26-3, 5 KOs) in a controversial 12 round decision. The three judges had Diaz winning by a score of 116-112, 115-113 and 118-110. After the fight, Malignaggi was highly critical of the judges and it appeared a substantial number of the fans in attendance did not agree with the decision.
How to Properly Score a Round:
In the ten-point must system judges score each round based on the following three criteria:
- Clean Punches: A clean, forceful hit, landed on any vulnerable part of the body above the belt should be credited in proportion to its damaging effect.
- Effective Aggressiveness: Who sustains the action of a round by the greatest number of skillful attacks?
- Ring Generalship: The ability to quickly grasp and take advantage of every opportunity offered, the capacity to cope with all kinds of situations which may arise; to foresee and neutralize an opponent’s method of attack; to force an opponent to adopt a style of boxing at which he is not particularly skillful.
The Judge’s Score Card:
Diaz | Malignaggi | Judge’s Notes | |
| RD 1 | 9 | 10 | Clean Punches |
| RD 2 | 10 | 9 | Effective Aggressiveness, Clean Punches |
| RD 3 | 9 | 10 | Clean Punches |
| RD 4 | 10 | 9 | Malignaggi momentarily stunned |
| RD 5 | 10 | 9 | Effective Aggressiveness, Clean Punches |
| RD 6 | 9 | 10 | Clean Punches |
| RD 7 | 10 | 9 | Effective Aggressiveness, Clean Punches |
| RD 8 | 10 | 9 | Effective Aggressiveness, Clean Punches |
| RD 9 | 9 | 10 | Malignaggi stole the round in the last 40 seconds |
| RD 10 | 10 | 9 | Sharp right in the last 10 seconds hurt Malignaggi |
| RD 11 | 9 | 10 | Straight right by Malignaggi was his best punch thus far |
| RD 12 | 10 | 9 | Effective Aggressiveness, Clean Punches |
| Total | 115 | 113 | Winner: Diaz (115-113) |
Explanation:
The Diaz-Malignaggi fight is a classic example of a fight that is easy to score by the trained eye, but the subsequent results may be confusing to the casual boxing fan. As predicted in the preview and prediction article, Malignaggi attempted to use his effective boxing skills to keep Diaz at bay, while looking to score clean punches and using ring generalship to force Diaz into a traditional boxing match.
From the sound of the bell, Diaz was able to effectively use ring generalship to force Malignaggi to fight in a style more accustom to Diaz. Diaz consistently pushed the action, was the effective aggressor and clearly landed more clean punches that had a damaging effect.
What does the Data Reveal:
The data available from the fight confirms the judge’s decision. Although the total number of punches landed by each fighter was close, Diaz landed 123 power punches to only 80 for Malignaggi. With Malignaggi only having five career knockouts, the clean, harder punches were clearly being landed by Diaz.
