Malignaggi says Deontay Wilder wanted him fired

Former two-division champion and current boxing analyst for Showtime Paulie Malignaggi is never one to hide his opinions on anything in the world of boxing.

Malignaggi speaking during Tuesday’s “Ak And Barak Show” on SiriusXM Radio said that Wilder after suffering his first professional loss should’ve kept the excuses that came afterward to himself.

“Deontay, in the ring, he said, ‘I’m not gonna make no excuses,’ ” Malignaggi, said on Sirius XM. “And then he made 40 of them. You know what I mean? And he’s not the first guy to do that – not to say he is. But again, from a competitive standpoint, I totally am with him in that you don’t accept a loss. You figure out a reason why that happened.”

?️"So Fury made all the adjustments, Wilder didn't really look so different you know? Actually he looked worse, because Fury made the adjustments to make him worse." — @PaulMalignaggi gives @BoxingwithAk his take on #WilderFury2 & Deontay's comments in the aftermath ?

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/RK5Qpzpn6V

— SiriusXM Boxing (@SiriusXMBoxing) March 3, 2020

Wilder after losing the WBC heavyweight belt to Tyson Fury in February made the rounds speaking to the media blaming the performance on everything including the costume he wore into the ring which has since received much criticisms and is making everyone’s list of “bad excuses after a loss” list.

Malignaggi also speaking on SiriusXM stated that Wilder tried to have him and long time broadcaster and unofficial judge, Steve Farhood, fired from their gigs after their telecast of the first Wilder-Fury pay-per-view fight back in 2018. Farhood scored the fight for Fury on Showtime’s unofficial card.

“Here’s the problem I have, and this is I think where Deontay’s had a problem in the last couple years,” Malignaggi elaborated. “Nobody around him is honest anymore, in my opinion. OK? Because when you say certain things publicly, you’ve already said them in your circle. You don’t just randomly say stuff publicly that you have not said in your circle, even in passing.

OK? So, starting from the first Fury fight, somebody [should’ve] been like, ‘Yo, playa, you didn’t win that fight. We got away with it. Just run with it and say, yo, I’m gonna make this even better the next time. I got the knockdowns.’ Say you even feel like the result wasn’t a robbery. But don’t go saying like people were out of their minds to think you lost the first fight, when you got out-classed in the first fight.

Let me give you a refresher for those who don’t remember the fallout and disdain that Wilder had about the Showtime telecast. Wilder himself was very critical on “The Joe Rogan Podcast” at the time of the broadcast calling the fight which many felt he the same way as Malignaggi.

Malignaggi continued:

“Because that was my issue with the whole thing. He tried to get me fired from Showtime and all this other stuff. You know? He was trying to have me and Farhood removed and all this other stuff. So, I have sort of an issue with that, because I don’t have an issue with you being competitive and you even not liking the criticism. I don’t have an issue with that, because you are not supposed to accept that that easily.

But when it’s constructive, you also have to, when you calm down, because in the moment of course you’re not calm. But when you calm down, you have to be able to understand the difference between constructive criticism and hating criticism. You know? And so, you have to be able to take the constructive criticism and build yourself and get better.”

While this sounds like no love lost here at all between Malignaggi and Wilder, the speculation and early reports are that the third fight will be again a joint ESPN and Fox pay-per-view. Thus, it will avoid having Malignaggi calling the third fight, as well.

Malignaggi next telecast for Showtime will be on March 28 when Luis Nery makes his return to the ring against Aaron Alameda in a Super bantamweight title eliminator.