Paulie Malignaggi has rated Canelo Alvarez’ unanimous decision victory over Christian Mbilli after backing the underdog to win their super-middleweight showdown.
The pair squared off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last Saturday, with Mbilli making a first defence of the WBC title he had acquired by virtue of an upgrade from ‘interim’ to full champion.
This came last December, with Terence Crawford announcing his retirement and vacating all four 168lb world titles after dethroning Canelo a few months earlier.
He did so with a unanimous decision victory after moving up two weight classes, yet Canelo reclaimed a quarter of his undisputed crown by scoring the same result against Mbilli.
Prior to their encounter, former world champion Malignaggi had predicted that the 36-year-old – who he described as looking “passive” against Crawford – would struggle to contain the intensity of his opponent.
With the Mexican handily outboxing Mbilli, though, Malignaggi has now admitted on his YouTube channel that Canelo looked much more impressive this time around.
“If you’re gonna sell illusions … at a certain point, you do have to make them count. And what I’m saying is: Canelo did make them count. He made that uppercut count at times; he made that whipping right hand count at times.
“I felt like Canelo did a lot of good things – a lot of veteran, savvy things. Mbilli was never going to be the most talented guy Canelo fought, but the reason I rate this win is because of the timing.”
By timing, Malignaggi means that, at this stage in his career, Canelo deserves credit for managing to nullify a typically high-volume pressure fighter like Mbilli.
