ATLANTIC CITY -- The tension is rising as fight night approaches. The main-bout participants made weight this afternoon at Bally's where Brooklyn's Paulie Malignaggi will defend his IBF junior welterweight crown against Herman Ngoudjo in a bout televised by Showtime.
Malignaggi scaled 139 while Ngoudjo hit 140. The staredown was as good as it gets as Malignaggi was in his opponent's face talking all kinds of trash. Some of which cannot be printed here. This isn't hype, there seems to be genuine bad blood between the fighters. The war or words is over for now and the real action will get underway tomorrow night. First bout is 6:30, Showtime begins televising at 9:00.
The weights from Atlantic City are as follows:
Malignaggi 139 -- Ngoudjo 140
Chazz Witherspoon 229 -- Kendrick Releford 213
Yoriorkis Gamboa 130 -- Gilberto Luque 129 1/2
Lovemore Ndou 145 1/2 -- Rafael Ortiz 144
Kevin Burnett 262 1/2 -- Ryan Thompson 263
Nicky Demarco (from Staten Island) 129 -- Alberto Amaro 131
Former light heavyweight champ Glen Johnson weighed in at174 but his opponent, Hugo Pineda, was still trying to make the light heavy limit of 175. He tipped in at 178. Thanks to FDR of Manhattan-via-Philly for running the weights to this corner.
We caught up with Malignaggi earlier in the day who said he's not underestimating his opponent, but, "if they are talking like that, if they think they have a chance of beating me, then they are underestimating me. I've worked so hard, I know I'm not beatable."
Malignaggi's training regimen took him from Brooklyn, to Vero Beach, to the Poconos and even to Milan, Italy. That's right, Paulie's a huge soccer fan and was invited by A.C. Milan to train with the team for a week.
Ngoudjo is from Montreal, via Cameroon. He fought for Cameroon at the 2000 Olympics. -- CASSIDY