New York: Paulie Malignaggi won a unanimous decision against Zab Judah in a welterweight bout on Saturday between two Brooklyn-born fighters billed the "Battle of Brooklyn."
The judges scored it 116-111, 117-110 and 117-110 in favor of Malignaggi (33-5) in a fight that had many in the crowd at Brooklyn's Barclays Center booing the lack of action.
The 33-year-old Malignaggi landed 230 of his 607 punches thrown, including 122 of 376 jabs. He spent most of the fight with blood on the left side of his face.
"It definitely allows me to continue boxing," Malignaggi said. "With a loss, I don't know if I wanted to continue."
It was the third loss in four fights for the 36-year-old Judah (42-9), who is a five-time champion in the light welterweight and welterweight divisions. Judah landed 121 of 498 punches, including 67 of 386 jabs.
"I was very motivated for this fight," Judah said. "I came to fight and so did Paulie. He did a good job of staying outside. It just wasn't there."
Malignaggi was dropped briefly at the 2:26 mark of the second round when Judah connected with a hard left hand, but he came back swinging and continued to throw jabs in the middle rounds while Judah constantly ducked the punches.
Both fighters were coming off losses on cards at the Barclays Center, with Malignaggi losing to Adrian Broner in a split decision in June that cost him his welterweight title and Judah being outpointed by Danny Garcia in April.
Malignaggi said he now wants to fight the winner of the next weekend's bout between Broner and Marcos Maidana, who will compete for welterweight crown in San Antonio.
"This big win puts me in the right spot for a fight in the talented welterweight division," he said.
All three fights on the undercard also went the distance.
Shawn Porter (23-0-1) remained unbeaten and took the IBF welterweight title by outpointing Devon Alexander (25-2), 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.
Erlslandy Lara (19-1-2) retained his WBA Interim Super Welterweight championship with a unanimous decision over Austin Trout (26-2), who dropped his second straight fight since retaining the light welterweight title by defeating Miguel Cotto last December at Madison Square Garden.
Sakio Bika (32-5-3) retained his WBC Super Middleweight championship by taking a split decision against Anthony Dirrell.
