Wilder Says Joshua Needed KO & Before The Bronze Bomber KO’s Joshua, He Wants A Tune Up

Deontay Wilder welcomed Anthony Joshua’s knockout of Robert Helenius. 

That is according to the Bronze Bomber’s trainer Malik Scott. Joshua knocked out Helenius in the seventh round, as the talk turned towards a potential fight with Wilder in Saudi Arabia.

However, prior to the stoppage, Joshua struggled to pin down his opponent. This was despite the fact that Helenius had entered the ring with a one-week notice as a replacement for Dillian Whyte, who failed a drug test. 

And since Wilder had stopped Helenius in one round, seeing Joshua produce a brutal knockout will only go on to make their fight bigger. 

“He was like, ‘we needed that [KO]. We both said the same thing because at first it looked like it was getting ready to go the distance, so when the knockout came I called him on FaceTime and he was like, ‘I’m glad he got that, we needed it done just like that.’ So we’re both satisfied, the fight (between Wilder and AJ) is bigger to me than it was because of the knockout, so shoutout to AJ for going out there and getting the job done,” Scott

Despite this being the case, Wilder has not fought in around a year since his first-round knockout of Helenius.

And given the need to stay sharp and active ahead of a potential Joshua fight, it is vital that the Bronze Bomber has a run-out.

He had been linked with a fight with Andy Ruiz Jr. However, the failure to agree terms has hindered that fight. Wilder’s camp had offered a 70-30 split, while Ruiz’s team wanted 50-50.

Therefore, Scott confirmed that Wilder is now looking at other options before an ‘AJ’ fight.

“[We are] look for something in October. Andy Ruiz doesn’t want to fight Deontay, so we’re looking for someone who really wants to fight and take a chance and unfortunately somebody else who is going to get knocked out. Hopefully we can lock in an opponent and from there we’ll go and knockout AJ in January,” Scott