Paulie to defend Brooklyn Belt at Barclays
Bensonhurst’s Malignaggi to take on Sunset Park’s Bracero on June 30
It will be Saturday Night Fever at Downtown’s Barclays Center next weekend, when Bensonhurst native and former two-division world champion Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi defends his Brooklyn World Championship Belt against Sunset Park’s Gabriel Bracero in a 10-round welterweight bout.
As the reigning “King of Brooklyn”, Malignaggi (35-7, 7 KOs) is eager to prove he remains our borough’s best by holding on to the mythical title he won back on Pearl Harbor Day 2013 against fellow Brooklynite and five-time world champion Zab Judah.
The 35-year-old Malignaggi, who has been fighting professionally since scoring a technical knockout of Thadeus Parker at Coney Island’s MCU Park, back when it was still called KeySpan, in the summer of 2001, is 2-2 in the ring since outpointing Judah over 12 tough rounds on the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.