Porter stops Malignaggi, retains title
— -- WASHINGTON -- Shawn Porter steamrolled Paulie Malignaggi in defense of his welterweight title on Saturday night at the DC Armory, knocking him out in the fourth round and leaving his limp body laying right near the broadcast position he usually occupies.
It was all Porter, who left no doubt against Malignaggi, the former two-division titlist who is also the analyst for Showtime boxing broadcasts. But Porter might have sent Malignaggi back to television work for good with a beatdown on the undercard of the light heavyweight title-unification bout between Bernard Hopkins and Beibut Shumenov.
"He wished me the best, and I don't know what he's looking at next but he said, 'I lost to a great champion,'" Porter said of his postfight words with Malignaggi. "I'm doing my best. I definitely needed this victory -- to get it like this over this guy. I knew what he was coming with, but I always had some questions of my own. I came in and answered the questions and got the job done tonight."
Porter, 26, of Akron, Ohio, was making his first defense of the 147-pound belt he won by outpointing Devon Alexander on Dec. 7 in Brooklyn, N.Y., on the undercard of Malignaggi's unanimous decision win against Brooklyn rival Zab Judah.
In a close first round, Porter opened a cut under Malignaggi's left eye with a jab. But Porter had a huge second round, badly rocking Malignaggi multiple times. He hurt him with rights and lefts, and it was surprising that Malignaggi was able to stay on his feet. He was reeling at the end of the round and lucky the bell sounded.
Porter continued to hurt Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs), 33, of Brooklyn, in the third round, rocking him with overhand rights and manhandling him along the ropes.
Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs) ended it in the fourth round by dropping Malignaggi with a clean right hand. Malignaggi looked badly hurt, and Porter continued to tee off on him when the fight resumed before dropping him flat on his back with an onslaught of punches at the edge of the ring apron. Referee Sam Williams waved it off without a count at 1 minute, 14 seconds.
"The objective was to use the jab and get to the body, and it all worked," Porter said. "The first knockdown, he knew that right hand was going to come all night. I caught him in back of the ear, but I knew it wasn't over. [In the fourth round], it was a big right hand. He knew it would land all night. We kept throwing it."
Malignaggi, outspoken throughout the promotion (as usual), was humble in defeat and gave Porter credit.
"He has potential to be great, and I told him to go be great," Malignaggi said. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I don't want to lose to an average champion. I want to lose to a great champion. I told him to go be great, so if this is my last fight, I hope I lost to a great champion.
"I thought he would use constant pressure. I knew he'd come right at me and he mixed it up well. He had a good game plan. If I had to tell you now, I'd say I'll stop fighting. I wish Shawn the best. He deserves it."
Quillin dominates Konecny
Middleweight titlist Peter Quillin handily retained his belt for the third time, rolling to a lopsided decision victory against Lukas Konecny in a fight with little action that drew booing from the crowd.
Konecny (50-5, 23 KOs) was simply overmatched against the methodical Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs), who was unable to truly impose himself but won by scores of 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109. ESPN.com also had it a 120-108 shutout.
"He was a tough customer, and he came to fight. I'm here to inspire kids. That's my mission and goal," Quillin said. "We can always throw more jabs. There are tons of things I can do. I will go back home and watch the tape and see what I need to do."
Konecny, 35, of the Czech Republic, got off to a terribly slow start as Quillin, 30, of New York, outlanded him 32-6, according to CompuBox statistics, in the first round. Quillin worked behind a strong jab and mixed in right hands and hooks against Konecny, who did little but cover up and walk forward without throwing many punches.
He picked up the pace a bit as the fight went on, but Quillin was still in control and appeared to hurt him at the end of the sixth round, when they got into an exchange. Quillin kept up a steady attack of landing lefts to the body and following with lefts to the head. Konecny was trying to fight back and landed some decent shots but not nearly enough to win rounds. In the eighth round, Quillin caught him with a right hand that bloodied his nose.
Konecny continued to plug ahead late in the fight and caught Quillin a few times, but nothing hard enough to do any damage or come close to a knockdown.
Next up for Quillin could be a summer match with fellow Brooklyn fighter Daniel Jacobs, who was ringside to call the card for Showtime as an analyst.
"If Danny Jacobs is next and the money is right, let's do it," Quillin said, adding that he would also like to fight champion Sergio Martinez or the winner of the proposed July showdown between super middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Gennady Golovkin, although those two bouts are unlikely given the promotional and television network issues.
Quillin had scored 12 knockdowns in his past four bouts, but he didn't come close to dropping Konecny, a 2000 Olympian, former European junior middleweight champion and former two-time world-title challenger.
"It was nothing I didn't expect," Konecny said. "I would have expected a harder fight. Quillin is a good fighter, a good champion, but not a great one. But he beat me."
• Brooklyn welterweight Sadam Ali (19-0, 12 KOs), 25, a 2008 U.S. Olympian, blew out Michael Clark (44-10-1, 18 KOs), 40, of Columbus, Ohio, by knocking him out in the first round. Ali landed a hard right-left combination that dropped Clark to his rear end near the ropes, and referee Joseph Cooper counted him out at 2 minutes, 6 seconds. Clark, who didn't appear to make much of an effort to get up, dropped to 3-5 in his past eight fights and has now been stopped in the first round in two fights in a row. He was a late replacement for Jeremy Bryan (17-3, 7 KOs) of Paterson, N.J, who dropped out because of a thumb injury.
• Light heavyweight Marcus Browne (10-0, 7 KOs), 23, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Staten Island, N.Y., rolled past steppingstone opponent Otis Griffin (24-16-2, 10 KOs), 36, of Troy, Ala. Griffin, has lost six fights in a row, 10 of his past 11 bouts and was no match for the speed and accuracy of Brown, a southpaw. Brown scored a knockdown on a straight left hand in the fifth round and coasted to a shutout decision, 80-71 on all three scorecards.
• Junior welterweight Zachary Ochoa (7-0, 5 KOs), 21, of Brooklyn, dominated Hector Marengo (6-8-4, 4 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, en route to a fifth-round knockout in their scheduled six-rounder. Ochoa dropped Marengo, loser of three fights in a row and eight of his past nine, to all fours with a clean right hand to the side of the head in the fourth round and then floored him again with a body shot in the fifth round. Moments later, as Ochoa was unloading punches on his during the follow-up attack, Marengo's corner threw in the towel, and referee Cooper called off the fight at 1 minute, 32 seconds.
• Super middleweight D'Mitrius Ballard (5-0, 4 KOs), 21, of Washington, scored a knockout at 2 minutes, 35 seconds of the second round when Quincy Miner (3-5, 0 KOs), 38, of St. Louis, declined to continue after being pushed the canvas and motioning as though he injured his left shoulder. It had been a foul-filled fight, and Miner complained several times previously about Ballard supposedly fouling him, but he did not appear to want to fight.
• Middleweight prospect Dominic Wade (15-0, 11 KOs), 24, of Largo, Md., scored a spectacular one-punch knockout of Marcus Upshaw (15-12-2, 7 KOs), 33, of Jacksonville, Fla., leveling him with a big right hand in the second round. Upshaw went down hard, and the fight was called off at 2 minutes, 11 seconds. Upshaw has lost four fights in a row, including to top prospect David Lemieux and Marco Antonio Rubio, who later won an middleweight interim title.
• Lightweight Lamont Roach Jr. (1-0, 0 KOs) of Washington, made his pro debut and rolled to a shutout, four-round decision against Victor Galindo (1-4, 1 KO) of Puerto Rico, winning 40-36 on all three scorecards.
• Washington welterweight David Grayton (7-0, 6 KOs) dropped Howard Reece (2-5, 1 KO), 24, of Belleview, Fla., in the first round and finished him on his feet later in the round, at 1 minute, 58 seconds.
• Lightweight Jose Valderrama (4-7, 3 KOs), 26, of Puerto Rico, opened the show by pulling an upset as he outpointed previously unbeaten Chrisshawn Alexander (4-1, 4 KOs), 21, of Washington, winning 38-36 on all three scorecards.