Malignaggi: “How do you screw a guy like Ismael Barroso?”

Former two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi has been on the wrong end of a screw job and he's not holding back on what happened to Ismael Barroso this past Saturday.

Barroso, a 40-year-old Venezuelan likely on his last title run, was on the verge of scoring an upset to claim the vacant WBA super lightweight world title versus Rolando "Rolly" Romero in Las Vegas, atop a Showtime televised card. He had dropped Romero in the third round and was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards going into the ninth round.

In the ninth, he would be sent to the canvas with a punch-push combo from Romero. Moments later, though, as he was up against the ropes and answering Romero's non-landing shots, referee Tony Weeks would inexplicably jump in and wave off the contest. At the time of the stoppage, Barroso was clear-headed and had landed the only meaningful punch of the last sequence of the fight.

Weeks’ decision unleashed a wave of outrage throughout the sport. Malignaggi was right there with his own impassioned take, in full belief that this horrible call was no accident.

The former Showtime commentator would take to his Paulie TV Youtube channel to offer his feelings on the debbacle as well as champion the cause of Ismael Barroso.

"How do you screw a guy like that, a guy in that position, who's been what Barroso has been through?" Malignaggi lamented. What is boxing going to do? Somebody should demand a rematch. Showtime should make the rematch, should demand the rematch.

"Barroso is a guy that doesn't have a lot of connections. He's a guy who randomly shows up and hasn't been taken care of. A guy like this who can fight. A guy like this that was in the right hands would have probably had a lot more success in his career and probably made a lot more money in his career.

"Unfortunately, he's been tossed around like this and finds himself once again at the mercy of this kind of thing. It's a shame and absolutely criminal what they did to Ismael Barroso.

"We can talk about how they need to investigate it. They never do s**t. These commissions never do anything. It's just a dog & pony show, and that's why it's so annoying to watch it. It's so annoying to watch this sport when they do it right in front of your face and make a jerk off of all of us fans.

"We’re watching the same thing your watching. You make a jerk off of us. How do you stop that fight? Where in your right mind do you see the stoppage of that fight [Romero vs. Barroso]? That was absolutely criminal. It was not incompetence. That was criminal. Nobody is that stupid.

"Like I said, if it was about stupidity, you’d see these things happen once in a while and they’d benefit the B-side. They never ever benefit the B-side. That was absolutely criminal."

"He [Barroso] could have definitely used this title win for so many reasons," added Malignaggi. "That's not the reason you give it to him just because he needs it. He deserves it because he would have won the fight possibly. Also, you rob Rolly of possibly getting a stoppage."

So far, nobody on the administrative side of things has uttered a word regarding this situation. Referee Tony Weeks and representatives of the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to be interviewed by Showtime's Jim Gray in the immediate aftermath of the controversy and no other authority has been forthcoming with any statements.