Many people made assumptions about Deontay Wilder following his seven-round humbling at the fists of Tyson Fury last year.
One recurring theme was that the ‘Bronze Bomber’ was in an extremely dark place and battling depression. But Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott has said nothing could be further from the truth and that the former WBC heavyweight champion was merely disappointed after suffering his first pro defeat.
Having won an arbitration case to force a previously contracted third fight with Fury, Wilder will get his chance at redemption on July 24 in Las Vegas. Several hours after leaving the ring against Fury in February 2020, Scott says Wilder was already plotting his revenge. Wilder subsequently made team member Scott his head trainer, replacing Jay Deas and Mark Breland. Deas remains part of the team.
“If he was so depressed…I’m a tell you this. We’ll say we got out of the ring at 11:45pm after the loss to Fury. By 3am or 4am – it was somewhere around then – we were already in motion in putting the play together to what’s going on now,” Scott told the Premier Boxing Champions podcast.
“He immediately was already planning, like, ‘Bro I want you, you’re my head guy now’. We knew this from day one after that, that investments had to be made and that certain things had to be put in place. It worked perfectly.
“Ever since that loss [because] he never lost before. That wasn’t a happy feeling. Plus he was feeling that there was a lot of things that were done that weren’t working in his favour for that fight…the depression was never a thing.
“He never was depressed. Never. He was focused on the play that we’re focusing on now. When he rolls out of bed he’s training. When he rolls out of bed, he goes to his recovery tank. When he rolls out of bed his nutritionist is out there. He was never depressed. It was all bullshit.”