Deontay Wilder’s trainer, Malik Scott, says a fight with Anthony Joshua “still may happen” on March 9th despite the Bronze Bomber’s loss to Joseph Parker last Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Malik feels that people will still want to see the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder and Joshua fight. The decision could come done to what the Saudis want. They would be the ones that decide.
There would be more interest from people in seeing Joshua fight Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) than the fighter that AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is keen on matching him against, Filip Hrgovic. That fight will be DOA with crickets chirping if he tries peddling that on PPV in the UK and U.S.
Wilder looked befuddled against Parker (34-3, 23 KOs), losing a twelve round unanimous decision by the scores 118-111, 120-108, and 118-110.
Cryo Chamber Debacle: A Plausible Excuse
It was learned afterward that Deontay had stayed in a cryo chamber for too long in preparing for the fight. We don’t know what that took out of Wilder, but dipping someone in ice-cold temperatures can cause nerve damage if you leave them in too long.
Deontay’s manager, Shelly Finkel, said that he’d stayed in the cryo chamber for too long, and that’s dangerous for anyone, even a super athlete like him.
Fan Demand Overrules Logic
“Him and AJ were supposed to fight in March. It still may happen. That’s how boxing is. We’ll see. Deontay has got to go rest,” said trainer Malik Scott to ESNEWS about his belief that the Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder fight will still take place on March 9th despite the Bronze Bomber’s one-sided loss to Joseph Parker last Saturday night.
Malik is 100% right. A loss for Wilder won’t erase the interest of boxing fans in seeing him and Joshua battle it out.
Most fans won’t be aware of the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder’s defeat to Parker, and even the ones that are, they’d still be chomping at the bit to see him and Joshua get it on again.
No one wants to see Joshua fight Filip Hrgovic, as he’s completely unknown and not well-liked by fans who have seen his fights.
AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, can’t continue to match him against scrubs like he’s been doing in his last three fights. It’s obvious that Hearn is artificially keeping Joshua’s career afloat by matching him against the worst of the worst.
A fight between Joshua and Wilder would still attract a lot of interest, and it would be ideal for Saudi Arabia.
“It was a bad night at the office. First of all, Joseph Parker and [trainer] Andy Lee had a hell of a game plan,” said Malik about Wilder’s loss. “Joseph Parker’s chin wasn’t open. A couple of times, he was heavy-footed, and I thought Deontay could continue to be patient and jab him and make him run into something, but his chin was never over his front knee.
“He fought methodically all night long. They had a game plan, and they stuck to it. The best man won. Congratulations to Joseph Parker. I have nothing but love and genuine respect for him. He’s an incredible human being. He’s one of the best heavyweights in the world,” said Malik.
Parker’s game plan wasn’t what won him the fight. It was Wilder not throwing punches. The head & upper body movement from Parker was slow, and he was there to be pole-axed by Wilder if he was thrown consistently.
At some point, he would have caught Parker and done what Joe Joyce did to him. All Joyce did was throw a lot of punches, and he wore Parker down like an old clock.
Wilder’s form a Temporary Stumble
“There’s no shame in losing to Joseph Parker. He fought a good fight, and we had an awful night. We go from here. I wanted his head,” said Malik about Parker.
“There were a couple of things that he [Wilder] could have done more and could have done right. He came out of his base a lot. His chin came up a few times. The jab, it wasn’t filling the blank spaces a lot of times. There were a lot of times during the fight where there was nothing going on, and that was good for Parker but not good for Deontay,” said Malik.
The only thing Wilder needed to do for him to win the fight was to unload his right hand bazooka nonstop because that was what was missing. Let’s face it: He wasn’t going to defeat Parker by jabbing and filling the space, as Malik says. He needed to throw his right.
“I didn’t even care if Deontay would hit his guard hard or drill him with the right uppercut because every time Deontay threw the straight right hand, Joseph Parker would duck,” said Scott. “That’s why I was telling him to throw the right uppercut off the jab and make him duck into it, and hopefully, you could bring him up and run him into the missile.”
Wilder doesn’t have an uppercut, so it would have been pointless for him to focus on throwing those shots against Parker. The main weapon on Wilder’s toolbox is his right hand, and he kept it on the shelf for some reason.
“This s*** is easier said than done. I love this game, though. Life goes on, and back to Brickhouse [gym]. I want to come back. The sad thing is I didn’t get to explore the country [Saudi Arabia] as much as I wanted to,” said Malik.
