Deontay Wilder was ‘satisfied’ by Anthony Joshua’s knockout victory over Robert Helenius, according to the American heavyweight’s trainer Malik Scott.
Joshua beat Robert Helenius with a brutal KO in the seventh round at the O2 Arena on Saturday evening, which sets up his proposed mega fight with Wilder in Saudi Arabia in January.
Wilder demolished Helenius inside three minutes when they fought last October and his trainer believes the 37-year-old will make light work of Joshua when they meet in the wing.
When asked if he had spoken to Wilder after Joshua’s victory, Scott told YouTube channel October Red: ‘He was like, ‘yeah, we needed that’.
‘We both said the same thing, because at first it looked like it was gonna go the distance, so when the knockout came, I called him on FaceTime. He was like, ‘phew, I’m glad he got that, we needed it done just like that’.
‘We were both satisfied. The fight is bigger than it was, because of the knockout. Shoutout to AJ for getting the job done.’
Scott also believes the damage Joshua took against Helenius proves the gulf in class with Wilder.
‘The story is that AJ was being patient, he wasn’t trying to go for the knockout. That’s the sales pitch,’ Scott said.
‘But I really look at it like he wasn’t taking chances early on, and that’s like a good thing, especially when your next fight is possibly Deontay Wilder, who’s the hardest puncher in the history of the sport.
‘It’s good for you to practise not just fighting off your front foot, it’s good for you to say, ‘I need to take my time’.
‘It was cute, and then tragedy happened in the eighth round. Was I really impressed besides the knockout? No. Did it give me any type of feeling that we got some trouble coming in January? No.
‘It actually made me more confident, and I know that he only has three or four rounds in the ring with Deontay Wilder before he gets knocked out.
‘I believe that because AJ used to be, he’s not as much is why the fight went eight rounds, he’s not as front-foot heavy. Dillian Whyte was able to hurt him with a left hook early on in his career because AJ was front-foot heavy, he’d just punch and put his chin over his front knee.
‘But he can’t do that with Deontay, especially with the Deontay I train – everything is systemised, everything is a game plan, everything is done with intent, everything is drilled.
‘Deontay is a very dangerous fighter right now, and I just feel as though it won’t take him long to catch up with AJ.
‘If AJ wants to overthink and sit back and play that game, we’re not going to allow that, Deontay is coming to send him to the next dimension. That’s his intention. He’s not punching at you he’s punching through you.
‘If you noticed, AJ’s eye was lumped up, he was bleeding. You may say, ‘well, that’s boxing’, well when we fought Helenius our eye wasn’t lumped up and we weren’t bleeding and we were still boxing.
‘The difference is the violent aspect, Deontay Wilder is extremely violent with his hips and his bad-intention punches than to me AJ will ever be.
‘AJ is good at multiple punches, tonight is the first time I’ve seen him knock someone out cold ever. I’ve seen Deontay do that type of work tons and tons of times with 20oz gloves on, 10oz gloves on, what happened to Helenius… Deontay does that in training camps, in fights, that’s just who he is, he’s a knockout artist.’
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