DEONTAY WILDER’S new trainer slammed ‘bulls***’ claims the ex-heavyweight champion suffered depression after losing to Tyson Fury.
Wilder was beaten for the first time in February 2020 as he surrendered the WBC belt in a one-sided seven round stoppage loss.
In the period since, Wilder has remained largely silent other than accusing Fury of cheating with several baseless claims.
It led to fears the American was struggling mentally to cope with the defeat.
But Malik Scott, the man Wilder knocked out in 2014 but has now hired as his new head coach, revealed they have been quietly training in secret.
Scott told the PBC podcast: “He never was depressed. Never.
“He was focused on the play that we’re focusing on now – when he rolls out of bed, he’s training.
“When he rolls out of bed, he goes to his recovery tank. When he rolls out of bed his nutritionist is out there. He was never depressed, it was all bulls***.
“If Deontay Wilder has been depressed then I pray to God that I reach that level of depression because when I tell you, I’m extremely proud of him, not as a fighter that I’ve trained but as someone as I consider as my brother.
“Not the things going on in the ring that I’m proud of him about, but just all the smart investments that he has done.
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“All the acres that he is living on. All the people that he helps and everything that he does besides what’s going on in the ring.”
Fury, 32, initially walked away from his contracted trilogy bout with Wilder, 35, to instead hold talks to fight Anthony Joshua, 31.
His team argued the immediate rematch stipulation expired and allowed him to move on as Wilder took his case to arbitration.
Fury and AJ then agreed an undisputed title decider on August 14 in Saudi Arabia, until the civil mediator ruled in favour of Wilder.
The American is now set to face the Gypsy King once more, after they signed to fight on July 24.
Wilder and Scott are already training again and have showed off their tactical switch, working on head movement, body shots and combinations.
And the path to redemption was already being mapped out just hours after losing to Fury in Las Vegas.
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Scott, 40, said: “We’ll say we got out of the ring at 11:45 after the loss to Fury.
“By 3am or 4am – it was somewhere around then – we were already in motion in putting the play together to what’s going on now.
“He immediately was already planning, like: ‘Bro I want you, you’re my head guy now’.
“We knew this from day one after that, that investments had to be made and that certain things had to be put in place. It worked perfectly.
“Ever since that loss, yeah, of course, he never lost before. That wasn’t a happy feeling.
“Plus he was feeling that there was a lot of things that were done that weren’t working in his favour for that fight.
“The depression was never a thing.”
