In this corner, at 33rd and Seventh, the champion, host of Ali-Frazier, the building they call “The World’s Most Famous Arena” … Madison Square Garden! And in this corner, at Atlantic and Flatbush, the challenger, wearing the rusted metal and glass, the billion-dollar barn … Barclays Center!
After hosting concerts and Nets preseason games, Brooklyn’s new sports mecca gets in the ring tomorrow night with a four-title fight bonanza boxing debut.
“You grow up and everybody wants to have a big fight in your home,” Brooklyn-born champion Paulie Malignaggi said yesterday. “Everybody dreamed of Madison Square Garden because we didn’t have any arena like Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It’s no longer just Madison Square Garden. You can dream about Barclays Center, dream about having a big fight here.”
Malignaggi, known as “Magic Man,” is the kind of showman who wears a fitted vest and shades at an indoor press conference, who promises in left-right-left patter a bout filled with “razzmatazz,” who has the gall to add to the flattering adjectives listed by boxing legend and promoter Oscar De La Hoya, “You forgot … dashingly handsome.”
The 31-year-old veteran (31-4, 7 KOs) puts the WBA welterweight title he trekked to Ukraine to win in April up for jabs against 23-year-old Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19 KOs) of Mexico in the semifinal.
“No matter what, every fighter’s proud of where they’re from,” Malignaggi said. “I get that extra charge when they say Brooklyn, New York, and it’s going to be that extra, extra charge when they say Brooklyn in Brooklyn.”
The Barclays card is stacked with local fighters: Brooklynites Danny Jacobs, Dmitriy Salita and Luis Collazo will fight in prelims, as will Eddie Gomez of The Bronx. Undefeated Peter Quillin of Manhattan gets a middleweight title shot in the second semifinal.
“A lot of great Brooklyn fighters never got this chance,” said Jacobs, 25, making a remarkable return from spinal cancer after a 19-month absence.
The main-event matchup, pitting unbeaten super lightweight champion Danny Garcia of Philadelphia against aging Mexican warrior Erik Morales in a rematch from March, gave yesterday’s event its lone menacing hook when Garcia’s father and trainer, Angel, launched unprompted into profanity-laced taunting of the Morales camp.