by David P. Greisman

Paulie Malignaggi is still the so-called “Brooklyn Champion,” holding on to that designation with a unanimous decision over fellow New York City borough resident Gabriel Bracero.

Two judges had it 98-92, while the third had it 96-94.

Bracero was often made to follow Malignaggi around the ring, and Malignaggi was able to lead his opponent into individual counters — including uppercuts — and occasional one-twos. Bracero couldn’t land often enough. One of his best moments was a right hand to the body that had Malignaggi in retreat toward the end of the sixth.

Malignaggi was 168 of 486 on the night, according to CompuBox, a 35 percent connect rate. Bracero was 134 of 470, a 29 percent connect rate. Malignaggi outlanded Bracero on power shots, 119 to 70.

Malignaggi is at the tail end of a career that saw him win world titles at junior welterweight and welterweight, overcoming a lack of punching power and hand injuries and relying on his boxing skills and smarts.

His career seemed to be at its end in 2014, when he suffered a concussion in a scary stoppage loss to Shawn Porter. The damage left him out of the ring more than a year. He returned in August 2015, losing to Danny Garcia and feeling as if he wasn’t himself in the ring.

But Malignaggi also had dreams he wanted to fulfill, so he flew to Italy, where his family is from, to fight Laszlo Fazekas last September. And he wanted to fight for a European title, only for that bout not to come to fruition, but he still took on Antonio Moscatiello last December. He won both times, but continued to mull over his career.

He’s said he always wanted to end his career in Brooklyn. Going out with this win over Bracero would be better than last year’s loss to Garcia. The 35-year-old is now 36-7 with 7 KOs. It remains to be seen whether he’ll choose to have that be the record he retires with.

Bracero, who is also 35, has now lost two of his last three. He was outpointed by Felix Diaz in April 2015, came back with a one-round knockout of Danny O’Connor last October. He is now 24-3 with 5 KOs. The other loss, his first, came to DeMarcus Corley by decision back in 2012.

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