Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola is backing Deontay Wilder to come away with a win in his upcoming trilogy fight with WBC world champion Tyson Fury.
Wilder will face Fury for a third time on October 9th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Back in February 2020, Fury dominated the bout and stopped Wilder in the seventh round to capture the WBC belt.
The third time around, Arreola expects Wilder to avenge his first career defeat.
“Wilder [will win], hands down. The first fight could have gone either way. If he [Wilder] didn’t knock him down, you could have said that Fury won that fight easily. In the second fight, he [Wilder] got his butt kicked. He got his sh!t handed to him," Arreola said to Fighthype.com.
“Wilder has the most to prove, and Wilder has the bigger chip in his shoulder because Fury gave it to him. I’m taking Wilder; I’m honestly taking Wilder. By any means necessary. If it’s by knockout or disqualification, whatever it is. Wilder is winning that fight, man."
Earlier this year, Wilder hired former opponent Malik Scott to help train him for the trilogy bout.
Arreola, who Wilder stopped in July 2016, is not sure if the Olympic bronze medal winner can pick up new skills at this late stage of his career.
“It’s kind of hard to show a new dog new tricks. That being said, it’s the hunger that he has. He [Wilder] probably didn’t train for that one fight. He half-ass train, but now you can see he’s working f------ hard. When you get humbled. You got to figure that sh!t out to get that lion out of you again," Arreola said.
"So, I guarantee he’s working his ass off, and I guarantee that Malik Scott is making big dividends in his career right now."