By Daily Sports on March 7, 2018
Paulie Malignaggi didn’t like the way WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) fought Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) last Saturday night in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Malignaggi says Wilder gave up too much ground against Ortiz in backing away constantly while he pressuring.
Malignaggi thinks that if Wilder had stood his ground and nailed Ortiz with right hand counters while he was coming forward, he would have made the 38-year-old Cuban wary to attack him. Malignaggi feels the fight would have been much easier.
When Wilder did stop moving as much in the 10th round, he landed a big right hand counter that hurt Ortiz. Wilder then dropped him.
“I thought Deontay was losing the fight,” Malignaggi said to Fighthype. “I thought he ran out of ideas too. I thought he should have held his ground and throw counters. He’s got to give Ortiz reason to doubt himself coming forward, because every time Ortiz came forward with any kind of offense, Deontay gave up too much ground. If you give up all your ground, you can’t really counter,” Malignaggi said.
It’s obvious that Wilder was afraid of Ortiz. The moment was too much for Wilder in the first 8 rounds of the fight. Wilder was too timid to take control of the fight. It wasn’t until Ortiz faded in the 9th round that Wilder finally got enough confidence to hit him with a big shot that hurt him towards the end of the round. If Ortiz hadn’t got tired, Wilder would have been still fighting in a fearful way and would have ended up getting beaten soundly.
•Photo shows Deontay Wilder.
Source Daily Sports
Posted March 7, 2018
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