Paulie Malignaggi believes Deontay Wilder will get 'absolutely eviscerated' by Tyson Fury when the two trade hell for leather in their trilogy fight this summer.
It was revealed in May that Fury has agreed to fight Wilder for a third time following the collapse of his all-British domestic dust-up with Anthony Joshua.
WBC king Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO's) has reportedly been left furious by the collapse of the biggest fight in the history of British boxing and is taking a break from social media to focus on their third bout on July 24 in Las Vegas.
And, speaking to Dave Schmulenson aka 'The Schmo', the 40-year-old American has backed Fury to make a statement when he faces his fellow countryman for the third time.
"I think Wilder is going to get absolutely eviscerated in the fight," Malignaggi said to The Schmo. "I think he’s going to get smoked to [the point] where he’s never actually going to be the same again because he took a bad beating the second time around.
"The first time around, I thought Fury outpointed him. The second time around, he took a bad beating, and that will usually change a lot of guys in general.
"If you’re going to ask for that type of beating again, I don’t see where he’s going. Here’s the thing - Wilder doesn’t know how to fight going backwards. You’re not going to figure out a way to fight going backward.
"You’re not going to mentally and psychologically and physically change yourself to the point where you’re going to figure out how to fight this guy going backward. Fury will back you up."
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KO's) has made some pretty wild accusations in the wake of his defeat to Fury, much to the chagrin of many boxing fans, but has refused to accept any responsibility for his first loss.
Malignaggi, however, has steadfastly refused to throw him under the bus.
"I think Wilder has the right approach," he added. "You’ve got to kind of have this in denial approach to it if you’re going to take this fight.
"You can’t think about it negatively. You’ve got to convince yourself that it was everybody else’s fault and maybe that Fury cheated.
"You’ve got to convince yourself about all this stuff that people aren’t going to take you seriously, but you’ve got to do it because you've got to put yourself in the best position mentally to feel like you’re going to win the fight.
"I said that, and I don’t have a problem with that. If Wilder is going to be crazy enough to take this fight again, I think he has the right mental approach. He's got to approach it this way."
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