{"id":523112,"date":"2026-04-10T10:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523112\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:03:09","slug":"paulie-malignaggi-questions-hitchins-withdrawal-before-duarte-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523112\/","title":{"rendered":"Paulie Malignaggi Questions Hitchins Withdrawal Before Duarte Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Malignaggi pointed to the timing between Hitchins pulling out of the fight and the announcement of the Zuffa agreement, suggesting the decision may have been influenced by the risk tied to a loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt comes off like Hitchins may have actually been able to fight Duarte and was told, \u2018Look, this contract is already getting made. We\u2019ve got to make something up and not fight Duarte.\u2019 So, that\u2019s what he did instead,\u201d Malignaggi said on ProBox TV.<\/p>\n<p>Malignaggi said the situation appears tied to the deal being close to completion before it was publicly announced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what it seems to be looking like to me if I had to guess. I think it\u2019s more so not that he ducked Duarte. This deal was already on the table. It was already about to be signed or may have been signed, and it wasn\u2019t announced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Malignaggi said that the risk of losing to Duarte could have affected the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said, \u2018Listen, it\u2019s contingent on you not losing to the Duarte fight. You cannot take a risk in the Duarte fight and so go another way.\u2019 Is it a duck? In some ways, yeah,\u201d Malignaggi said.<\/p>\n<p>Many fans have questioned the timing of Hitchins pulling out on the day of the fight, particularly given the matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Duarte is a pressure fighter with a similar style to Gustavo Lemos, who gave Hitchins problems in their previous fight. That style matchup had been viewed as a difficult test heading into the bout.<\/p>\n<p>Hitchins has not publicly linked his withdrawal to the Zuffa deal. No official explanation beyond the initial withdrawal has been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Segal is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24 with more than a decade of experience covering fight news, previews, and analysis. Known for his straightforward reporting and ringside perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, contenders, and emerging talent worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Malignaggi pointed to the timing between Hitchins pulling out of the fight and the announcement of the Zuffa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-523112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}