Deontay Wilder has an extremely important decision to make.
After going 43 fights undefeated in his pro career, Wilder was stopped twice by Tyson Fury to lose and fail to regain his WBC World Title. He took a year out before returning with a first round KO of Robert Helenius. Another 14 months out of the ring followed before disaster stuck.
Despite saying pre-Zhang fight that a defeat would see him consider retirement, it has been confirmed through his team that he will fight on. Against who? Trainer Malik Scott spoke to Seconds Out and was excited about the prospect of the Anthony Joshua bout finally taking place.
“Look at my previous interviews, I’ve always been very high and keen on Joshua and Deontay sharing a ring together. I still can’t even fathom the fact that they haven’t fought each other in this long time. Two dynamic heavyweights in our time and now we’re going into another time and they still haven’t shared the ring with each other. That’s the sad part about boxing.
But, at the same time, that’s where you have to give Turki [Alalshikh] his credit. If anybody has been willing to make the fight happen has been him. At the same time, the fighters got to do their part and win certain fights to make it happen. Unfortunately we came up short at a time Joshua came up good.”
Joshua and Wilder were set to face off – after years of failed negotiations – pre-Parker fight. ‘AJ’ beat Otto Wallin that night and went on to knockout Francis Ngannou in his next bout.
With Wilder losing to Zhang, the Brit instead got a shot at the IBF Heavyweight World Title against new champion Daniel Dubois but was knocked out inside five rounds.
That defeat puts the fight against ‘The Bronze Bomber’ – which once could have been for the undisputed title – back on the table, and Scott believes it is as intriguing as ever.
“The circumstances have changed. Both have lost. Both have gotten knocked out. And both are older right now. If I was to look at it, I’d look at who’s more accessible to get hit and who takes the best shot. I think it comes down to that now. We all know who punches the hardest and, in my opinion, Deontay has a better chin that AJ, but I think AJ puts together punches better than Deontay. Combination-wise.”
