Former two division champion Paulie Malignaggi thinks Deontay Wilder’s problems are more emotional than physical.
Wilder was dropped twice and stopped in seven by Tyson Fury, who totally outboxed him.
“I think Deontay has a lot of yes men around him, no-one tells him to be careful with these things he’s saying,” Malignaggi told IFL TV.
“Is there anything to say to what he’s saying? He lost probably every round in the rematch with Fury then got knocked out. And in the first fight, he lost eight or nine of the twelve rounds and he was given a gift.”
“So the onus is on Deontay to prove he’s a champion, not the other way around. He’s an excellent fighter, but the onus is on him, he’s not the champion anymore. The pressure is on him, not Fury, it’s quite obvious Fury is champion at this point and he’s the No 1 heavyweight in the world. But sometimes athletes have to believe certain things in order for them to be successful.”
“I think Deontay is doing that to himself, maybe it will work. But if he goes into a third fight with Fury and gets dominated again, all these comments are going to come back to burn him tenfold. He has a couple of weapons, I don’t know if he can add any. He was thrown off by the aggressiveness of Fury.”
“The problem is more emotional than physical, Fury put him on the back foot and he didn’t recover. The mental part became physical and Fury put a beating on him and it was hard to recover.”
