Paulie Malignaggi: “The Onus Is On Wilder To Prove He’s Champion”
Former world champion and current showtime boxing commentator Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi spoke to IFL TV about the head-scratching comments made by former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
In a recent interview on the PBC Podcast, Wilder proclaimed that Fury wasn’t the champion. However, the latter dominated and knocked out Wilder in seven rounds in their February 22 rematch in Las Vegas and became the rightful new WBC heavyweight champion.
PAULIE SPEAKS
“I think Deontay has a lot of yes men around him, you know? So nobody tells him to be careful with these things that he’s saying. I mean is there anything to say to that? He lost every round to Fury in the rematch before he got knocked out and then in the first fight he lost 8 out of the 9 rounds but was given a gift.
“I think the onus is on Deontay to prove he’s the champion. I think Deontay is certainly an excellent fighter, one of the best fighters in the world in his weight class. But I think the onus has to be on Deontay to prove that he’s the champion, but he’s not obviously.
“It’s quite obvious Fury is the champion at this point and in most people’s eyes, he’s probably the number one heavyweight in the world consensus-wise.
“But if you go into a third fight with Fury and get dominated again, all these comments are going to come back and burn you tenfold.”
Obviously, the former champion is a prideful guy who’s still trying to process and come to grips with the embarrassing loss he suffered at the hands of Fury back in February.
Wilder and Malignaggi have had their share of differences ever since the first fight with Fury. The former champion believed the Showtime analyst was being biased in his assessment of the fight. Furthermore, Malignaggi said that Wilder tried to cost him his job with Showtime. This came after he was critical of the former champion’s performance against Fury in their first fight.
Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see what Wilder, if anything, has to say in response.
3kingsboxing.com will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.
By: Jerrell Fletcher
