Judges costs Ngoujo an IBF title.

Yesterday in Atlantic city, Hermann Ngoujo (16-2 9KOs) from Montreal had a chance to strip the IBF Junior-lightweight title away from the champion, Paul Malignaggi (24-1 5KOs).

Ngoujo has been verbally attacked by the champion during the pre-fight stages. Malignaggi promising that we would all forget Ngoujo's name after the fight. Hermann really instituted respect from the champ during the first three rounds.

After the third round, clearly won by Hermann Ngoujo, the face of the champion changed from a cocky grin to fear. A cut appeared over the champ's left eye and he knew at that point that his title reign was in jeopardy.

The fight was pretty evenly matched for rounds 4, 5 and 6 but Malignaggi was never able to tag Ngoujo with a solid shot. Ngoujo was winning the physical battle, was holding the centre of the ring and cornering Malignaggi as much as he could. Then during the 7th round, the champion almost went to the canvas under Ngoujo's powerful shots registered to the head. Malignaggi held on, grabbed and avoided the fatal shot.

The ''Pauly, Pauly, Pauly...'' chant that the attendance was performing disappeared from the 7th round on. The crowd realized that their protege's title was seriously in danger. Ngoujo continued his work until the 12th and final round but never hitted the button as well as he did during that 7th round. But Malignaggi never found a solution to hit the challenger with any consistence at all. The decision from the judges was needed.

A crushing decision for Hermann Ngoujo who fought very well all evening long. It looked after the course of the events that according to the judges, Hermann Ngoujo did not dominate enough to strip the champion of his crown. The scoring showed 116-111, 116-113 and 115-113 all in favor of the winner and STILL IBF junior-lightweight champion... Paul Malignaggi.

Hermann Ngoujo took the decision without showing his frustration, telling everyone that we haven't seen the last of him. Montreal went an inch away from hailing 3 boxing world champions at the same time yesterday...

Congratulations Hermann.

(Picture: Hermann Ngoujo)