Deontay Wilder’s trainer, Malik Scott, has responded to critics following ‘The Bronze Bomber’s’ recent defeat to Zhilei Zhang earlier this month.
Zhang secured the biggest win of his career when he defeated former WBC Heavyweight Champion in the main event of the Queensberry vs Matchroom ‘5v5’ card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
An explosive right hook saw the fight brought to a stunning conclusion, but, in truth, Wilder rarely threatened to get into the bout before the end came in the fifth round.
Following the defeat, many in the boxing community have called for the American to retire and just hasn’t looked anywhere near his best. His last top performance arguably came in the first bout with Tyson Fury back in 2018. Since then, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ has been a shadow of his former self.
Wilder himself hinted before the Zhang clash at the possibility of this being his final fight should he lose and footage after the contest showed just how devastated he was about yet another defeat.
In recent weeks, many have criticised Scott in his role as a trainer. ‘The Bronze Bomber’s’ father, Gary, recently hit out at the trainer and claimed he’s too friendly with his son.
“You need somebody you’re going to respect,” he told USA Today Sports. “You don’t need a buddy to train you. “It’s not too late for [Deontay]. I believe he got several good years left. Deontay’s always been a slugger.
“Now Malik’s trying to train him to be a boxer, and if you look at it, you’ll see that Deontay is not comfortable where he at. As long as he tries to be a boxer, he’s not going to win. That’s the bottom line.’’
Scott, who was a former professional boxer himself, has hit out at his critics and recently told The Second Wind podcast he had seen such opinions.
“Imagine seeing a killer their whole career, then all of a sudden you’re not seeing that killer anymore and it comes across like, if you take the facts away from it, wow he ain’t a killer no more because of Malik Scott,” he said.
The American trainer revealed the only possible change in Wilder’s game was brought on by age, using past heavyweight ‘killers’ as an example.
“I can’t take Deontay’s killer instinct away. Only Father Time can do that. Because can’t nobody give you a killer instinct. This thing is in you or it’s not.
Just to see if I’m right about that, look at every killer up to the second half of their career. You think Kevin McBride would have a chance at beating an early Mike Tyson? Absolutely not. When fighters get on the second half of their career, they’re not 22 or 23 no more.”
He denied attempting to change Wilder’s style and admitted that the performance against Zhang was ‘awful.’ He concluded: “I’ve been in boxing since I was twelve years old. If someone think I’m stupid enough to try and change Deontay Wilder into a Muhammad Ali type of fighter…
“My job is to train the fighter, and make him believe in himself and make him get through days he thinks he can’t. I’m not a miracle worker. We just had an awful night, and not even just the knockout. Even before the knockout, we had one mini good moment.”