Malik Scott, head trainer of course of former WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder, really does seem to be more frustrated than anybody over the way the much talked about fight between his guy Wilder and fellow former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua has stalled. Not too long ago, fans were being told the fight was going to happen, in either December or January. And now, nothing……silence from both fighters and from their respective teams.
Aside from Scott, that is. Speaking with Boxing Social at the KSI-Fury presser, Scott said that the Wilder-Joshua fight looking far less likely to ever happen now reminds him of the Riddick Bowe-Lennox Lewis fight that should have happened back in the 1990s but didn’t, the fans of both greats instead left bitterly disappointed. Unless things get moving and fast, there is a very real danger the Wilder-Joshua fight will go the same way.
And Scott is disgusted at this possibility.
“It’s very frustrating because I want Deontay to have as much activity as possible,” Scott said with regards to the non-movement on the Wilder-Joshua fight getting done. “I care about him, and me caring about him, he’s a fighter, and I want my fighter to have activity at the highest level. Deontay’s a big-time boxer and I want him to be in big-time fights. A couple of months ago, I was much more confident about the fight happening in January. Now I’m not confident in nothing at all! I just want Deontay to fight…..we all know who I want him to fight, and that’s Anthony Joshua. But we’re in a position where we might have to start looking at other options, because the business of boxing is just s**t! The Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis effect is happening thus far with this fight, and that’s unfortunate, because the fans deserve it, the historians deserve it, the little kids that’s motivated by these guys deserve it. It’s a world-freeze kind of fight and it’s just unfortunate that it’s not happening right now.”
So, the big question, will this fight happen? It is fair to say that a good number of fans never did believe this fight would take place, that Joshua is simply not confident enough to agree to take such a highly dangerous fight at this stage of his career. Maybe, hopefully, this line of thinking is guilty of doing AJ a disservice, but that clock is ticking and if Joshua is to prove to us that he is being done a disservice by these critics, then why doesn’t he come out, appear on one of the many platforms that are open to all fighters these days, and tell us he wants this fight and he wants it bad!?
Wilder wants the fight; we know that much from hearing what his head coach has to say. The Saudi mega-money may no longer be on offer as the small fortune that was required to make the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk fight emptied even that huge budget some, but surely other venues could host a Wilder-Joshua fight? Eddie Hearn spoke about this not too long ago actually.
But fans want action, not more talking. Bottom line: this guaranteed heavyweight explosion needs to happen. Who else could Wilder or Joshua fight if not each other? A world title fight aside, there really is no bigger fight out there for either former champion.
