AMIR KHAN TKO11 PAULIE MALIGNAGGI (plus weekend wrap)

The jab has long been considered the most important punch in boxing, and Amir Khan and Sergiy Dzinziruk both jabbed beautifully in their fights on the weekend.

Khan made an impressive American debut when he beat up Paulie Malignaggi for 11 rounds before referee Steve Smoger made a merciful intervention on HBO. I couldn’t believe it when Khan’s trainer told the Brooklyn boxer that he had just seen “a little improvement” after yet another three minutes of one-way traffic in the ninth. Moments later, the HBO slow-motion replay showed a right hand practically turning Malignaggi around.

At this stage, Paulie really should have been pulled out. He was allowed to take further punishment in the 10th and it was clear that referee Smoger and the commission doctors were getting uneasy as they conferred in Malignaggi’s corner at the end of the round.

Referee Smoger waited for just the right moment in the 11th, with Malignaggi under fire on the ropes, before making a well-timed intervention.

Smoger is a referee known for giving fighters a long leash, giving them every chance to fight their way back even if things are going extremely badly.

What we had with Khan against Malignaggi, though, was one man beating up another.

Paulie hadn’t been knocked down, he wasn’t what the boxing trade would call “busted up” although his features were swollen and there was blood inside his mouth, but the fight was getting so one-sided that it was making a viewer uncomfortable to watch it. Khan’s left jab was smacking Paulie’s head back on his shoulders and the British fighter was bringing in the right hand and the combinations.

Khan now looks like defending his junior welter title against the heavy handed Argentinean, Marcos Maidana. If champions Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley meet in a unification match we have the makings of a wonderful tournament at 140 pounds, with the Alexander-Bradley winner meeting the Khan-Maidana victor. Matches such as these are what keep boxing buzzing.

ShoBox featured another U.S. debut by a world champ from Europe as junior middleweight Sergiy Dzinziruk methodically hammered the resistance of out of game Aussie Daniel Dawson until referee Jose Cobian waved the finish in the 10th.

The unbeaten southpaw from Ukraine has moved from his base in Germany to live in Los Angeles. His co-promoter, Artie Pelullo, understandably feels that Dzinziruk is the world’s best at 154 pounds. “His focus is amazing,” Pelullo said over the phone from Philadelphia. “He never takes his eyes off his opponent and when a round is over he goes right back to his corner, no looking out into the crowd or anything. He is totally focused on the fight for every second.”

Dzinziruk’s right jab from the southpaw stance was slamming into Dawson’s face from the start, and when the Ukrainian boxer began to follow up with heavy left hands to body and head the bout — as was the case with Khan and Malignaggi the following evening — became painful to watch.

Again, the corner, I felt, could have shown compassion a round or two before the referee pulled the plug.

Ageing fighters Giacobbe Fragomeni and Nate Campbell were outclassed in what might have been career-ending defeats.

I expected a stronger challenge from Fragomeni in his cruiserweight title rematch with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in Poland, but the 40-year-old Italian just couldn’t summon up the same sort of mental and physical effort that he did when battling Wlodarczyk to a draw in Rome a year ago. Wlodarzyk was very sharp, though, and the Polish boxer was punching fast and hard. When Wlodarczyk started to land clean, solid shots in the seventh you could see the resistance draining out of Fragomeni, and the Italian veteran was simply beaten down in the eighth.

Campbell, of course, couldn’t pull the trigger on his punches in his bout with Victor Ortiz on the Khan-Malignaggi show and was soundly outboxed by the muscled young southpaw from Oxnard, CA.

Although Campbell was moving forward throughout he wasn’t landing much. Ortiz was smart and speedy and he seems to have reinvented himself, much more of a stylist than the fighter who was blowing people out earlier in his career. It was a dominant display in what had looked, on paper, like being a competitive contest, but did I notice a hint of vulnerability in Ortiz on the rare occasions when Campbell was able to put on some pressure?

In London, Kevin Mitchell boxed smartly for two rounds, then got hit on the chin by Michael Katsidis in the third round of their lightweight title fight. Mitchell tried to stand and fight but he never shook off the left hook that hurt him early in the round, and when the strong Aussie rocked the Londoner back with another big left hook it was essentially all over.

Katsidis looked better than he has ever looked, sometimes attacking but also using the ring and getting Mitchell to come to him, then striking with the left hook.

We are now hearing that Mitchell’s preparation was not ideal due in part to an unsettled spell in his relationship with his live-in girlfriend, but Katsidis looked the bigger, stronger and better fighter.

Julio Diaz put his career back on the right track by easily outboxing Herman Ngoudjo in their junior welter 10-rounder on Friday Night Fights. Diaz was too fast, too smart and he was the harder puncher. Ngoudjo couldn’t get into any sort of rhythm. I thought that Ngoudjo was being beaten at every turn. I had leaned towards Ngoudjo winning and made him a very slight favourite in Graham’s Odds. Diaz, though, looked rejuvenated in a classy showing while I wonder if the 12-round pounding that Ngoudjo suffered against Juan Urango took more out of him than anyone realised.