Deontay Wilder wholeheartedly appreciates Malik Scott’s influence on helping him reach the right state both mentally and physically in advance of his third fight with Tyson Fury. (photo by Ryan Hafey)

The former WBC heavyweight champion credits Scott, a former opponent who Wilder considers family, for encouraging him to use skills he has long possessed, yet rarely utilized in his fights. Scott replaced Jay Deas as Wilder’s head trainer following Wilder’s seventh-round, technical-knockout defeat to Fury in their WBC heavyweight rematch in February 2020 in Las Vegas.

Wilder, 35, explained their professional and personal relationship during a recent appearance on “The PBC Podcast,” which is available on premierboxingchampions.com.

“It ain’t so much of what Malik has taught me,” Wilder told co-hosts Kenneth Bouhairie and Michael Rosenthal. “It just so much of what I’ve already known that he’s brought out of me. You know what I’m saying? Because a lot of people, when they see me, they gonna be like, ‘Oh, Malik taught him this and that.’ And Malik will tell you his self. He like, ‘It ain’t nothing I taught bro. It’s just what I’ve been able to bring out of him,’ that my previous trainers couldn’t do. You know what I’m saying? Because, you know, with Malik, he can bring the best out of me. He can bring it because of that brotherlyhood that we have, that friendship that we have, that ultimate tie that we have with each other, the love that we have with each other. You know? It’s like if he mad, I’m mad. If he happy, I’m happy. And that’s all of us together. If somebody f*** with one, they gotta f*** with all of us. And that’s how it is. You know what I’m saying?

“You ever been around somebody – one of your family members got mad and all of a sudden it just made you mad because their energy upset? That’s how we are. That’s how we are. So, when he’s with me, I can feel his energy as he train [me], as he can feel mines. So, when he steps it up, I step up. Or when I step up, he step up. And we on one page and one accord, and man, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s like you said, we’re making music.”

The hard-hitting Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) has posted various training videos on social media in recent months. His critics contend that anyone can look terrific in training videos, without an opponent – in this case a 6-feet-9, 270-pound undefeated champion – throwing punches back at you.

Wilder, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, hasn’t paid his detractors much mind during the buildup toward their ESPN/FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event October 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He has focused more on his preparation for his shot at redemption against England’s Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).

“It’s a beautiful thing when you have a guy like that or guys that’s in the circle that can bring the best out of you,” Wilder said. “And that is what’s occurring. He’s just bringing the best out of me. The things that I know how to do, he just bring it out even more and just applying it to sparring, just applying it to different things. Because a lot of people always say, ‘Well, anyone can look good on mitts.’ That’s false. Everybody can’t look good on mitts. You have to be able to do certain things. You have to be able to have a certain stamina, a certain skill. You have to be able to be coordinated.

“You know what I’m saying? To be able to hit the mitts and stuff like that. I’ve done seen many people hit the mitts and I’ll tell you, some people you be like, ‘You should just give up boxing right now, the way you looking with these mitts.’ So, you know, that’s not true. You know, so we work very hard. You know, it’s a lot of people gonna discredit and a lot of people gonna give credit. But we don’t worry about the naysayers.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.