Former two division champion Paulie Malignaggi believes there are too many ‘yes men’ in the camp of former heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder.
In February, Wilder was dropped twice and stopped in seven by Tyson Fury, who walked away with the WBC heavyweight crown in Las Vegas.
Wilder has presented several reasons for the defeat, including the heavy weight of his ring-walk outfit, which the boxer claims was exhausting for his legs.
A trilogy is being targeted for the fall, with Wilder exercising an immediate rematch clause.
Malignaggi felt Wilder was given a gift in the first bout, which ended in a controversial twelve round draw, and then took a beating in the rematch.
“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.”
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