By Charles Brun: Deontay Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott spotted a lot of weakness in Anthony Joshua in his performance against Robert Helenius last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
Wilder will be looking to send the new hyper-cautious Joshua to a parallel universe with his right hand in January. In other words, there will be no more Joshua after the knockout artist Deontay gets through with him.
Scott noted the new “patient,” and some would say timid style from Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs). Malik says isn’t going to hold back and make any “silent agreements” with Joshua early on the way Helenius did.
(Photo credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Malik didn’t see anything from Joshua’s performance against Helenius that worries him when he gets in there with Wilder.
Malik noticed that Joshua got lumped up with black eyes and a bloody nose last Saturday night. Wilder didn’t have any of that when he obliterated Helenius in one round last October in New York.
Deontay sending Joshua to a different dimension
“Was I really impressed besides the knockout? No. Did it give me feeling that we got some trouble coming in January? No,” said Malik Scott to October Red, talking about Anthony Joshua’s performance against Robert Helenius last Saturday night.
“It makes me more confident that he [Joshua] only has three or four rounds in the ring with Deontay before he gets knocked out.”
Joshua looked afraid to throw anything against Helenius, for fear of getting nailed by the big puncher. It’s very likely that if Helenius had given Joshua something to worry about in the first six rounds by throwing power shots, AJ wouldn’t have scored the seventh round knockout. He would have been too afraid to load up on his right hand.
“The story is that AJ was being patient; he wasn’t trying to go for the knockout. That’s the sales pitch. But I really look at it like he wasn’t taking chances early on,” said Malik.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn came up with the story/narrative about how AJ is now fighting with patience and won’t be fighting recklessly as he had in the past.
The cold, bitter reality is Joshua was too scared to throw anything because he didn’t want to get poleaxed by Helenius like Adam Kownacki had been done. You can always tell when a fighter is scared. They don’t throw punches and sit back, waiting for the perfect time to throw.
“It won’t take him [Wilder] long to catch up to AJ. He wants to sit back and play that game,” said Malik about Joshua. “We’re not going to allow that, and we’re not coming to make any silent agreements.”
So there it is. Wilder isn’t going to hold back in the early rounds just because Joshua isn’t going to be throwing punches. Wilder is going to jump on Joshua and look to vaporize him early.
If AJ doesn’t have the good sense to throw punches in the first six rounds, he’s not going to going to be turned into a cloud of meteor dust by Deontay.
“Deontay is coming to send him to the next dimension. He’s not punching at you,” said Malik about what Wilder is going to do to Joshua. “He’s punching through you. If you noticed tonight, AJ’s eye was lumped up and bleeding. So one would say, ‘Well, that’s boxing,'” said Malik.
Joshua made Wilder fight bigger
“When we fought Helenius, our eye wasn’t lumped up, and we weren’t bleeding. We were still boxing. The difference is the violent aspect,” said Malik. “Deontay Wilder is way more violent with mean-intention punches than AJ.
“AJ is good with multiple punches. Tonight was the first time I’ve ever seen him knock somebody out cold ever. What happened tonight with Helenius? Deontay does that in training camps; he does that in fights. That’s just who he is. He’s a knockout artist.
So, we’ll see. I’m excited about the fight. If there’s anybody that I want to see Deontay knockout, it’s Anthony Joshua because it’s a great fight.
It’s good for boxing, and it’s good for culture, it’s good for art, and it’s good for the heavyweight division. I’m excited about it, and I’m going to orchestrate the a** whipping.
“We needed it just like that,” Malik said about Joshua’s one-punch knockout of Helenius. “The fight is bigger than it was because of the knockout.
“So shout out to AJ for going out there and getting the job done in the eighth round. Most of all, shout out to Robert Helenius. It takes a lot of courage to get in that ring with real killers on short notice. He just fought Deontay last October and had one fight. Now he’s right back fighting Anthony Joshua.
“He’ll be more than ready for a January showdown [with Joshua]. The last time I talked to Deontay. We were looking for something in October.
“Hopefully, we can lock in an opponent, and then from there, we’ll go knockout AJ in January,” said Malik about Wilder looking to take a warm-up fight in October.
“No, [Andy] Ruiz doesn’t really want to fight Deontay. We’re looking for somebody else, somebody that wants to fight and is willing to take a chance, and unfortunately, somebody that’s going to be knocked out,” said Malik.
