Deontay Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott has shared his thoughts on a potential bout between his client and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, and stated that “The Bronze Bomber” still has the power to turn people’s lights out.
“Fighting is in Deontay’s heart. He’ll fight again,” Scott told SpaceportSweden.com.
“Deontay will fight again. He just moves on his own terms and does things how he wants to do them, especially when it comes to the business aspect of things because, like I said, he doesn’t need this, so he ain’t going to do it if all the terms are not right.
“He’s still Deontay Wilder. He’s still big time boxing and people still want to see him. He’ll fight again.”
Wilder has been linked with a potential bout with Ngannou, with the suggestion of the matchup taking place in Africa. That’s a mouth-watering prospect, and one that Scott is fully behind, if the deal can be done.
“Deontay always wanted to fight in Africa anyway. So I’m sure he’s very excited about it. If there’s something that he’s going to entertain, this is something he’s always wanted to do anyway.
“There’s so many times he was supposed to go over there just to visit and do a couple events for people that wanted him to come over. So I’m sure if everything is right he definitely wouldn’t mind going over there.”
Ngannou has long spoken of his desire to fight on African soil. It’s not something he’s been able to do in his MMA career to date, but with Turki Alalshikh potentially backing the idea, Scott thinks that anything could be possible, especially with Wilder targeting a big fight on his return to the ring.
“The best way I can answer that is we know Ngannou wants to do it, Turki is saying this thing can happen, Deontay is going to fight again. So it’s all just a win,” he said.
“Boxing fans can be very fickle sometimes. And not just the fans, just the way things go.
“I don’t know when the last time Francis was in the ring. Was it the Anthony Joshua fight? Yeah. So there’s just no telling. I know he wants the Wilder fight. He always speaks about it. But we just have to see.
“Him and Deontay will do big numbers, especially in Africa.”
A matchup between Wilder and Ngannou would no doubt focus on the pair’s prodigious knockout power, with Wilder demolishing contenders in the boxing ring, while Ngannou did similar in mixed martial arts.
A bout between the pair would pit two huge knockout artists head to head, but Scott said that, when it comes to boxing, there’s only one winner in the KO stakes.
“I haven’t seen Ngannou work enough with 10 ounce gloves on in a boxing ring,” Scott admitted.
“Is he a big, strong, heavy-handed guy? Yes. But with Deontay, Deontay’s power is blessed because he gets to the target so fast. He puts his hip through you, he puts his shoulder through. It’s just so many different dynamics with the way Deontay has always knocked guys out.
“He has a long resume of knocking guys out cold. That didn’t happen overnight. I haven’t seen Francis Ngannou enough in a boxing ring to think his power comes close to Deontay Wilder’s. I just haven’t.”
While Scott admits he has doubts over Ngannou’s power in boxing gloves, he did take issue with Daniel Cormier’s comments about Ngannou’s boxing ability in the aftermath of the Cameroonian’s defeat to Anthony Joshua, with the trainer explaining that AJ’s power could have had that sort of effect on any heavyweight on the planet.
“It was a heavy knockdown. The knockout was even worse,” he admitted.
“But I will say this, those right hands that he hit AJ with, those right hands, could clip any man. Especially that second right hand.
“When Ngannou got up after the first knockdown, he was still out on his feet. I don’t even know how he got up. But when that second right hand from AJ hit him, anybody AJ would have hit with that right hand would have been lights out because that’s AJ.
“AJ got a chance to get his back foot on him. He had a chance to bend his knees. He had the chance to put his right shoulder back and he delivered everything from his right side and went right through Francis Ngannou. I don’t know nobody that that same punch wouldn’t have affected like that.
“So we can’t really judge that because it would be different when he fought Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury couldn’t do that. Nothing, nowhere near close to that.”
With that said, Scott advised that Ngannou’s boxing skills shouldn’t be judged off the Joshua fight, and instead suggested that Joshua should be praised for delivering a stunning KO, rather than questioning Ngannou’s boxing ability.
“We shouldn’t judge him really off the AJ fight,” he said.
“We shouldn’t really judge him off getting hit with Anthony Joshua’s best shot. And now he’s knocked out cold. Cause everybody that Anthony Joshua hit with his best shot, they all have been out cold.
“Ngannou was concussed, very much so. He came out there, he was trying to jab, trying to move his head. He’s not a boxer. He’s just doing a little bit that he learned in a short time.
“You’re wrong to expect him to go out there looking like a boxer. He wasn’t gonna go out there looking like that. And don’t forget he’s in there with Anthony Joshua. It was really just a matter of time, the way the fight was progressing in such a short time.
“It was a matter of time and AJ was really switched on that night and when AJ is switched on like that, he’s very dangerous.”
