As the bell sounded, Paulie Malignaggi and Adrien Broner stood on the ropes in their corners and raised their hands to air, hoping to celebrate victory. Many in the Barclays Center Saturday night viewed it as wishful thinking on Malignaggi's part.
But when the scorecards were read, the outcome was closer than most thought. Broner (27-0, 22 KOs) remained unbeaten and captured the WBA welterweight title with a split decision win over Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KOs).
Judge Tom Miller scored the bout for Malignaggi 115-113, while judges Glenn Feldman and Tom Schreck saw it for Broner 115-113 and 117-111. The Post scored it 116-112 for Broner.
Punch stats told the story of the fight. Broner landed 214 power shots to 94 for Malignaggi, who landed 120 jabs compared to just 32 for Broner.
"I thought I outworked him," Malignaggi said. "In his spots he was sharp, but he wasn't busy. He only worked about 30 seconds of every round. The fight could have went either way. In my hometown as the defending champion I felt I should have got it. He didn't do enough to take the belt from the champion."
Broner, who won titles at 130 and 135 pounds jumped up two weight classes to 147 pounds to challenge Malignaggi for his title. Malignaggi thought he was catching Broner at the right time, before he became a seasoned veteran and had faced tougher opposition. "I came to his home town and beat him on a split decision," Broner said. "That's saying something."
It was a chance for Malignaggi to validate his two world titles and win the kind of huge fight that had eluded him. His face was disfigured in losing a decision to Miguel Cotto in 2006. He was stopped in 11 rounds by Ricky Hatton in 2008 and he was stopped again in 11 rounds by Amir Khan in 2010.
After the Khan loss, it looked like a chance for another big-money fight would elude him. But he captured the WBA welterweight title by beating Vyacheslav Senchenko in the Ukraine and then successfully defended his title at the Barclays Center last October.
Broner, on the fast track to becoming a pay-per-view star, was heavily favored, but Malignaggi came out firing jabs and hooks that kept Broner on the defensive for much of the first two rounds.
When Broner stunned Malignaggi with a sharp right hand to start the third round, Malignaggi re-established himself, but it was becoming clear Malignaggi stream of punches weren't hurting Broner, who kept pressing forward.
By the end of the third round, Broner was starting to find his rhythm, countering between Malignaggi's piston-like jabs. But the Brooklyn native stayed busy, keeping his fists in constant motion jabbing to Broner's body and head.
Broner didn't seem bothered by Malignaggi's punches and landed a hard right hand at the bell to end the fifth round. The challenger continued to stalk Malignaggi in the sixth round, landing a hard body punch early in the round. He picked up the pace as the round went on, rocking Malignaggi with heavy-handed combinations.
The pattern continued into the ninth where Broner opened by exchanging more words than punches. But by the end of the round, he had landed a hard right that jarred Malignaggi as the bell sounded.
As Round 12 sounded, the crowd began to chant "Paulie … Paulie." But Malignaggi couldn't score the knockout he needed.
In other bouts:
In a wild slugfest, Sakio Bika (32-5-2, 21 KOs) of Cameron, Africa, won the WBC super middleweight title with a majority decision over Marco Periban (20-1, 13 KOs) of Mexico. The two landed 57 of 180 punches in the 12th round before Bika claimed the decision 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113.
Seth Mitchell (26-1-1, 19 KOs) of Brandywine, Maryland, avenged his November defeat to Johnathon Banks (29-2-1, 19 KOS) of Detroit by scoring a unanimous decision in a lackluster heavyweight bout.
"He weathered the storm better this time than he did last time," said Banks, who scored a second-round TKO in November. "I did as much as I could but I wasn't able to take advantage this time."
Mitchell was hurt in the third round, but recovered and pulled out the win.
"I felt I won eight out of 12 rounds," Mitchell said. "I used patience and distance."
Staten Island's Marcus Browne improved to 5-0 with his fifth knockout, a first-round stoppage of Ricardo Campillo (7-7-1, five KOs) of Mexico.
george.willis@nypost.com
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