Deontay Wilder\u2019s coach says Anthony Joshua change has given him \u201cpure confidence\u201d Associated PressAnthony Joshua looked \u201cgood and strong\u201d in his knockout win over Francis Ngannou and has rediscovered the \u201crealm of pure confidence\u201d. That was the glowing verdict of Deontay Wilder\u2019s coach Malik Scott, who believes Joshua\u2019s trainer Ben Davison has been key to his revival at the top of the heavyweight division. Joshua, a two-time world heavyweight champion, is in line for a shot at the winner of the undisputed world title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk next month after a couple of impressive performances. And Scott has been very impressed with Joshua\u2019s renaissance since suffering back-to-back defeats to Usyk. \u201cI thought AJ looked good and strong, my favorite part was watching him work on a shot in the locker room and then coming right out and executing it,\u201d Scott told Instant Casinos. \u201cNgannou had never experienced the AJ system before; very strong, very violent, very distant. Taking his time with you, letting you feel his presence and then taking out the trash. \u201cHe\u2019s always been a threat at the top of the division but he\u2019s really coming into the realm of pure confidence and I think Ben Davison has had a lot of influence over that.\u201d The 34-year-old followed up a stoppage win over Otto Wallin with a destructive knockout win over Ngannou, in a fight that was originally slated to be against Wilder. On the same night Joshua beat Wallin, Wilder was stunned by Joseph Parker which scuppered any chance of the fight happening last month. Joshua and Wilder were simultaneously world heavyweight champions for years and, for whatever reason, a fight between them never materialized. Scott insists it is a fight Wilder still wants but acknowledges his fighter must get past hard hitting Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang in his next fight if he is to harbor any hopes of finally sharing a ring with Joshua. \u201cI\u2019m sure Deontay still wants AJ but we\u2019re in a place right now where we\u2019re dealing with a high-level dangerous fight,\u201d Scott added. \u201cWe need to deal with what\u2019s in front of us, especially coming off our last performance. I don\u2019t want his focus or desire anywhere but knocking Zhang out. \u201cWe really cannot afford anything else. Deontay is back vengeful. Against Joseph Parker the rounds went by and he wasn\u2019t vengeful, he was in a place of contentment, a place of not being able to let the trigger go. \u201cBut now our back is against the wall, he knows what he needs to do. I think Zhang\u2019s size, power and danger will bring the best out of Deontay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deontay Wilder\u2019s coach says Anthony Joshua change has given him \u201cpure confidence\u201d Associated PressAnthony Joshua looked \u201cgood and strong\u201d in his knockout win over Francis Ngannou and has rediscovered the \u201crealm of pure confidence\u201d. That was the glowing verdict of Deontay Wilder\u2019s coach Malik Scott, who believes Joshua\u2019s trainer Ben Davison has been key to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}