‘The Magic Man’ grows up in a hurry

Last June, a brash young Brooklyn kid named Paul “The Magic Man” Malignaggi stepped into the ring at the world-famous Madison Square Garden with a 21-0 record, bouncing around with his trademark blond rooster haircut.

“Nobody comes into my building, in my city, and impresses in my weight class,” Malignaggi declared in the pre-fight smack talk.

By the second round, his opponent, Miguel Cotto, made an impression on Malignaggi’s chin, sending him to the canvas.

Right there, Malignaggi could have called it in. If Cotto was the class of the division, Malignaggi was clearly outclassed. Cotto was bigger than him, he was clearly more powerful, so what would be the point of getting pummeled for the entire fight?

Twelve rounds later, Malignaggi left the ring, much of his swagger gone, but not his spirit. He made the decision to show the boxing world that he had mettle, and in the process went the distance with Cotto — only the fifth fighter in 40 opponents to do so.

To be sure, Malignaggi was beaten up in the process. His orbital bone was shattered in the second-round knockdown, and it began to swell badly, closing much of his right eye, something he had to endure for the next 10 rounds. Above his eye a cut had raised its ugly head, the product of an early round butt.

To make matters tougher for Malignaggi, he was fighting in a much smaller ring. Speed is Malignaggi’s weapon — he counts on hitting you first and often, rattling the punchers with the uncommon pace of his punch attack. Unable to move, the stronger Cotto was able to cut off the ring and unload on Malignaggi.

After the fight, Malignaggi admitted he felt like he had been through three fights.

“The environment was rough … it could have eaten up a lesser man. I’m glad I got to go through something like that and it didn’t eat me up,” Malignaggi would say immediately after fight. “As far as a moral victory, to show that I’m tough, to show that I belong among the elite fighters, I felt like I did that already.”

Malignaggi backed up his words by drubbing then-IBF junior welterweight champion Lovemore Ndou over 12 rounds, beating him to every punch and even knocking him down once — a rare feat for the light-hitting Malignaggi, who has only 5 KOs in 23 fights.

With the belt in hand and redemption for the Cotto fight, was Maglinaggi low key?

Try to understand: He’s the Magic Man.

“People are going to always talk about Pauli Malignaggi. … I’ve got that personality that people don’t like,” Malignaggi told BoxingScene.com just before the Ndou fight. “But this is what it is. I’m going to be on top. I’m going to get me that IBF title, and I’m gonna go after Rickey Hatton. One fight at a time. I’m gonna go after all of them. I’m going after the best.”