Deontay Wilder finally revealed today on social media that his coach is one of his former opponents in Malik Scott. The two have been training for over a month and posting clips on Instagram periodically.
According to iFL TV, Wilder has left his long-time trainer Jay Deas, who has been with him for many years. That would be the second coach that Wilder has sacked since losing his WBC heavyweight title to Tyson Fury last year in February.
“An Amazingly Peaceful Session…
W/ my brotha and new trainer @malikkingscott @everlast#BombZquad #TilThisDay #ReBirth,” said Wilder on Instagram.
During today’s workout, Scott, 40, was seen working with Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) on his footwork to help him cut off the ring on his opponents such as Fury.
Wilder will need to be able to cut off the ring on Fury if the arbitrator rules in his favor at his arbitration hearing, which is expected to conclude this month.
Fury would need to set aside his plans for an August 14th match against fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua so that he can fight Wilder again.
However, even if Fury loses the arbitration hearing, it’s possible that he’ll pay Wilder a step aside fee to get him to move out of the way.
Knowing Fury, it doesn’t seem realistic to believe he’ll agree to pay Wilder millions to step aside. Fury clearly won’t like the idea of paying Wilder a fortune to get him to disappear.
This is clearly the Gypsy King’s own doing. If Fury had stuck with the contractual rematch and fought Wilder last year, there wouldn’t be a problem now.
Obviously, the temptation to fight Joshua to earn a king’s fortune was too tempting for Fury, so Wilder was shunted to the side.
The British heavyweight was supposed to fight him again after Wilder gave him a rematch last year. Sadly, once Fury got his hands on Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title, he had other ideas, choosing to go in the opposite direction.
There’s a lot of animosity from boxing fans today on social media in response to Wilder’s video announcing Malik Scott as his new coach.
What seems to be apparent is that the fans view Wilder as a threat to the Joshua vs. Fury fight, which many of them badly want to see on August 14th.
Those fans shouldn’t be mad at Wilder. Truth be told, there wouldn’t be a problem if Fury had simply fought Wilder last year rather than letting it go this long.
If the arbitrator rules against Fury, he’ll have the option of fighting Wilder again or paying him to step aside.
If Fury is as good as he says he is, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to honor his rematch clause and beat Wilder a second time.
Of course, if the new improvements that Malik Scott has made in Wilder’s game have strengthened him to the point where he can beat Fury, fans can forget about the Joshua-Fury fight this year.
With that said, it doesn’t mean that Fury and Joshua still wouldn’t fight at some point in time. They’ll still fight, but the variables will have changed dramatically under that scenario if Fury gets blasted out by Wilder.