Paulie Malignaggi: “MMA fans are the least intelligent in all professional sports”
Former Boxing World Champion Paulie Malignaggi slams Mike Tyson’s involvement in Francis Ngannou’s training camp ahead of his bout against Tyson Fury this Saturday.
Speaking to OLBG, Malignaggi claimed that Mike Tyson’s style is wrong for Ngannou and his expert boxing advice will have “absolutely no impact” on the former UFC champion, who he predicts is going “to take a beating“.
The Brooklyn native, now 42, actually took part in an MMA fight himself, in 2019, a couple of years after he had hung up his gloves, so he has a first-hand insight on the combat sport.
Ahead of Fury's fight with Francis, he completely shut down the influence Mike Tyson could have on the UFC Lineal heavyweight champion, “Mike Tyson will have absolutely no impact on Francis Ngannou whatsoever. Absolutely none. Tyson is there as a headline maker, to sell more pay per views. The MMA fans unfortunately are the least intelligent in all of professional sports.
“Because of that, they will think the Mike Tyson situation will make a difference and spur Ngannou on. When in reality, anyone who understands real boxing knows that to use Tyson style you have to be short. The head bobbing that Tyson does, that's not for tall guys.
“It's actually counterproductive for tall guys. Ngannou is shorter but not that much shorter and honestly, I don't think Ngannou has the quickness of a small guy to use Tyson's tactics on the way in. When you're as big as Tyson Fury he's just going to do what Lennox Lewis did and push their head down if they get too close.
“If Ngannou does get by his defenses with that head movement, he'll just push his head down and the ref will break it. I'm happy for Ngannou that he's getting paid because Dana White is an absolute pig for not paying their fighters what they're worth. But I think Ngannou is going to end up taking a beating for the money.”
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