Deontay Wilder’s trainer, Malik Scott, would like Anthony Joshua to sit on the sidelines until their proposed December fight for fear that the Brit loses before it happens.
The two former world heavyweight champs look set to finally fight this year, with the deep pockets of Saudi Arabia being the breakthrough that was required.
Negotiations are reportedly positive and close to the signing stage, but the fight won’t be taking place until the end of the year. That leaves both Joshua and Wilder with a decision as to what happens in the interim.
Whilst the majority agree that ‘AJ’ should fight in the summer to get more work in under new coach, Derrick James, Wilder’s team are pushing for the opposite.
Scott, who has trained the American knockout artist since 2021, told Betway that Joshua is there to be beat by a ‘C+’ fighter.
“This is going to sound bad but I don’t care. If a C+ fighter that really believes in himself is against Anthony Joshua, he has a very good chance of winning. You could be a C+ guy, but if you really believe, you train hard, you work hard, and you take advantage of the loopholes in AJ’s game, you could beat him.
I’m not afraid of him fighting, but let’s say I don’t agree with AJ having an interim fight. I want us to be next to knock out Anthony Joshua. The way that he’s looking now, he may not make it to December. There’s just no telling. But we’ll see, he’s with Derrick James now, one of the best trainers in the game.”
Scott then addressed Dillian Whyte as a potential opponent for the fight. Despite ‘AJ’ beating Whyte back in 2015, the trainer still doesn’t ‘trust’ the idea.
“I don’t trust AJ fighting Dillian Whyte in the summer before us. I’d much rather us get the fight, and he waits.
Just continue to develop and sharpen up mentally, and then in December he fights Deontay and we let nature take its course. With how he looked in his last fight, there’s no telling if he will make it.”
It’s undecided if Wilder himself will fight before the Saudi event, but recent developments could see him ordered to face Oleksandr Usyk for the unified titles – a hard one to turn down.