DEONTAY WILDER’S trainer said Anthony Joshua is “right in line” to get brutally knocked out… before heaping praise on him.
Joshua and Wilder are in negotiations for a super-fight for December in Saudi Arabia, with talks ongoing.
It came after AJ got back to winning ways in April, comfortably beating Jermaine Franklin on points over 12 rounds.
But Wilder’s coach Malik Scott insisted it was not the Joshua of old, which spells bad news heading into a potential bout with the Bronze Bomber.
Scott told iFL TV: “I looked at the fight again, and I think it was a fair [performance].
“Do I think he’s right in line to be knocked out by Wilder? Absolutely. But I also saw so many good things that AJ did.
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“I like the AJ that fought [Alexander] Povetkin, that fought Dillian Whyte for the first time, the AJ that fought [Kubrat] Pulev.
“That AJ doesn’t seem like it’s there right now, but we’ll see. I don’t want to keep critiquing him, sometimes my honesty threatens other peoples reality.”
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn flew out to Riyadh for talks with boxing bosses in Saudi.
And he hopes to agree a deal with Wilder within the next few weeks, before deciding on whether AJ has an interim bout in the summer.
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Hearn told Matchroom’s YouTube channel: “Just look at that situation and decide if there’s a fight – which will now be early August – for Anthony Joshua.
“If he does fight before then. I would like him to, I think Derrick James would and I think AJ would.
“But we’ll have to see how those talks evolve with Deontay Wilder
“We just made for clear to them. Our message was, ‘AJ is ready for all of those fights and is happy to agree to a Deontay Wilder fight in December.’
“And we’ll see if we can close terms in the next couple of weeks.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
