Deontay Wilder's trainer Malik Scott believes that while Anthony Joshua is still one of the world's top heavyweights, he is susceptible to an early knockout from the hard-hitting American.
Despite two consecutive world title losses to Oleksandr Usyk and Wilder having lost his belts to Tyson Fury before returning with a recent win, fans are still clamouring to see the two heavyweights clash. Their bout would have been one of the biggest in history when they held all the gold back in 2018, but there is still interest in it as a non-title fight with casual and hardcore fans.
However, Scott reckons Joshua will succumb to the "God-given" power of Wilder, just as every opponent he has faced aside from Fury has over the years. Wilder recently returned to the ring against Robert Helenius, viciously knocking him out within a round to set up a return to world title contention with the WBC.
"Hopefully, we'll have to see but I want them to fight," Scott told Mirror Fighting in an exclusive chat. "We want it as Deontay's next fight but obviously from the look of things AJ has other plans and he's looking to go another direction so we need to focus on the other things that we need to focus on which is best for Deontay.
"The main focus is not, like people say, AJ. It's for Deontay to be in the biggest fights of his career, particularly in this second half of his career. If AJ wants to fight we're available every time, if he doesn't then we'll move on to, you could say not bigger fights, but better fights."
Wilder is desperate to somehow force his way into an unprecedented fourth fight with Fury despite drawing their first bout and being brutally stopped in their two rematches. And the WBC have ordered that he will become mandatory, should he get past the former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr in an eliminator.
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Should Wilder beat Ruiz, he would be perfectly poised for either another shot at Fury or a chance at Usyk, depending on who becomes undisputed champion if the pair meet in March as expected. And Scott believes that as Wilder approaches the tail end of his career, his focus is on accumulating as many major fights as possible.
"There's a lot of big matches out there for Deontay," Scott continued, with names such as Joshua, Ruiz and even Joe Joyce emerging in recent months as potential big-money pay-per-view opponents for the former champion. "Maybe not a lot of really big matches but there are about three or four and we're looking to take on all of them.
"I wouldn't put AJ at the top of the list but you still have to give him credit in the top three to five in the heavyweight division. He has a huge market, he's a good fighter, nobody puts punches together like Anthony Joshua. But I believe Deontay Wilder knocks him out in three rounds."
