Deontay Wilder-Malik Scott will be a WBC eliminator on March 15
Deontay Wilder (30-0, 30 KO’s) will be fighting Malik Scott (36-1-1, 13 KO’s) in a WBC heavyweight eliminator bout next month on March 15th on the undercard of the Danny Garcia vs. Mauricio Herrera fight at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
What this means for Scott and Wilder is that the winner of their fight will be facing the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs. Chris Arreola fight for the WBC heavyweight title this year. Stiverne and Arreola will be fighting for the vacant WBC heavyweight title in the next couple of months.
“The winner of this fight [Wilder-Scott] here will be the next mandatory for the winner of the Arreola-Stiverne,” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said: “The WBC rules stipulate that when two fighters fight for a vacant title, they will have to do an immediate mandatory and the winner of Deontay Wilder and Malik Scott will be that mandatory. So that’s why I say there’s a lot riding on this fight for each guy because they will have a guaranteed world title shot.”
The 6’7″ Deontay will likely be a huge favorite in the Scott fight to beat him and become the new WBC mandatory challenger for the Arreola-Stiverne winner.
Scott was knocked out in the 6th round by Dereck Chisora last year in July in London. However, that was the fight where Chisora hit Scott with a looping rabbit punch that nailed Scott on the back of the head sending him down on the canvas. Scott waited until the count of 9 and then got up. The replays showed that Scott was clearly on his feet by the count of 9, but the referee halted the fight anyway.
Despite the controversy, Scott was backing up the entire time and sitting on the ropes just trying to block shots. It was a bad strategy to use against a guy like Chisora. If Scott uses the same strategy against Deontay then you can expect the fight to be over quickly. Deontay punches very hard and if Scott goes into his shell by standing with his back against the ropes, Deontay will tee off on him the same way he did in his 1st round knockout win over Audley Harrison last year in April.
If Deontay beats Scott on March 15, it will be interesting in seeing how he stacks up against Arreola or Stiverne. Those are two solid heavyweights with a lot of power, and good experience. Also in capturing the WBC heavyweight title, it'll set him up with a big money unification bout against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who has already talked about wanting to capture the WBC title so that he could have all of the major world titles in his possession.