Former WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has given his reaction to Anthony Joshua's explosive seventh round knockout win over Robert Helenius.
Joshua and Wilder now both have an opponent in common with the latter knocking out 'The Nordic Nightmare' in the first round of their heavyweight contest last year.
Following Joshua's win, a fight with Wilder for early 2024 is set to be next and the American was very pleased with the British fighter's performance according to his trainer Malik Scott.
“He [Deontay Wilder] was like, 'We needed that'," Scott said in an interview with the October Red YouTube channel.
"We both said the same thing because at first it was looking 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 is bigger to me than it was because of the knockout, so shoutout to AJ for going out there and getting the job done.
"Most of all shoutout to Robert Helenius. It took a lot of courage to get in that ring with real killers especially on short notice. He just fought Deontay last October, had one fight back and now he was right back in there fighting Anthony Joshua.”
Scott also revealed that he would like to see Wilder take a warm-up fight before facing Joshua.
"He’ll be more than ready for a January showdown. Last time I checked with Deontay we were looking for something for October, hopefully we can lock in an opponent and from there we’ll go and knockout AJ in January," Scott continued.
"Andy Ruiz doesn’t want to fight Deontay so we’re looking for somebody else, someone who really wants to fight and take a chance and unfortunately somebody else who is going to be knocked out.”