American bare-knuckle boxer Paulie Malignaggi has strongly criticised NHS medical staff after claiming he suffered complications following treatment he received after a fight in Leeds last year. Malignaggi, who defeated Tyler Goodjohn at BKB 47 in October 2025, said he was left waiting for hours at a hospital after suffering serious facial cuts and fractured ribs during the bout. The former world champion alleged that his wounds were not properly treated, leading to ongoing infections in the months that followed.

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Malignaggi said the care he received would have been handled far differently in the United States.

“The cuts would have been just a regular stitch job in a regular hospital in the United States,” he said. “They would stitch you up, maybe you leave in a couple of hours and you’re good to go. You take the stitches out the next week and you’re fine.”

The 45-year-old then launched into a scathing criticism of NHS staff, claiming some of the workers he encountered were unqualified.

“They have people in the UK who work in the NHS that, in America, probably would not even be allowed to work on farm animals, and they let them work on human beings in these hospitals,” he said.

Malignaggi claimed he spent nearly nine hours waiting for treatment at Leeds General Infirmary following the fight and alleged that his wounds were never properly cleaned while he waited.

“I was in that hospital all night. My wounds were not cleaned and so on,” he said. “Basically, what I’m getting at is the complications from one of the cuts has been constantly infected and leaking pus up until a few weeks ago.”

The former boxer, who previously fought stars including Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan and Miguel Cotto, also described the experience of sitting in the emergency department while injured and exhausted.

“This is due to the animals that they have working at the NHS,” he said. “Absolute inept animals, who also were keeping me in the waiting room, not cleaning the blood dripping down my face.”

“I’m hearing them gossiping in the other room, the hospital is almost completely empty, they do not even have a guy there to stitch anybody, let alone take care of whoever is in there,” he continued. “I’m in that waiting room half sleeping, because it’s the middle of the night, half passing out, with blood dripping down my face. It was a pretty interesting experience.”

A spokesperson for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust responded to the criticism by acknowledging the delay but defended the hospital’s triage process.

“We’re sorry Mr Malignaggi had to wait in our Emergency Department to be treated following his bare-knuckle fight,” the spokesperson said.

“We do prioritise patients based on clinical need, to ensure that the most critically ill patients are treated first. If Mr Malignaggi would like to contact us, we would be happy to discuss his complaint further.”