As the hit song by English music superstar Sir Elton John goes, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
Now forty years after that title rocked the Billboard charts, Malik “King” Scott is bent on living up to that declaration when he takes on former British and Commonwealth champion and former world title challenger Dereck “Del Boy” Chisora on Saturday night, July 20th at London’s Wembley Arena.
Coming off a highly-disputed draw against 2008 Russian Olympic bronze medalist Vyacheslav Glazkov, the still-undefeated Philadelphia native currently fighting out of Van Nuys, CA, and his offensive-minded trainer, Jesse Reid, acknowledged that Malik will have to put on a dominating performance in Chisora’s backyard in order to come out with a win and move into the top 5 of the world rankings of the major boxing organizations and closer to an opportunity to fight for a World Title.
“They call it ‘boxing;’ I call it ‘fighting,'” Reid exclaimed.
“The way you win is to fight and that is just what Malik will be doing. Boxing is for defense and you have to be a crowd-pleaser. People come to watch heavyweights because they are pleasing to watch and they knock people out. Malik is not a vicious puncher, but he is an accurate puncher and he is like a bullet in there. He’s the kind of guy that can really cause a lot of damage and hurt somebody and we are going to try and capitalize on that in this fight.”
“I started training for this fight about three months ago by going to Russia for about a month to spar with a couple of heavyweights there,” Scott (35-0-1, 12 KOs) disclosed.
“And now I’ve been back with Jesse for about two months. We’re working with a lot of good sparring and we’re working to get in top condition so we can really hurt this guy bad.”
The Scott camp will be leaving this coming Saturday for London and will be there for seven days before the fight.
“I’m just coming into my own and for those that saw my last fight, could attest to this, Scott said.
“And for this fight we’re prepared and really ready and anxious to take the next step in my career. I know what kind of a talker this guy is, but that won’t help him when the fight starts. I am just going to take it to him with my boxing skills and be very aggressive.”
Chisora (16-4, 10 KOs) is coming off a ninth-round TKO in his last fight against Hector Alfredo Avila at this same Wembley Arena on the heels of successive losses to World Champion Vitali Klitschko and fellow countryman David Haye. The animated Chisora gained worldwide attention by spitting in Klitschko’s face and brawling with Haye at their pre-fight press conferences. But Reid says that Malik has no plans to engage Chisora in any such shenanigans and will instead use his nerve-shaking tactics against him.
“Oh I think there are a lot of weaknesses in Chisora that Malik can exploit,” Reid shared.
“He’s the kind of guy you don’t want to get wrapped up in all the crap he talks. He tries to get you upset. I just tell Malik to let him clown around and just stay within yourself, work his body and work off your jab and put your punches together.
“I think Malik is a way, way more skilled athlete and I think his accumulation of punches will be important especially since we are fighting in England. Malik is a lot bigger and I think if he keeps his distance and keeps punching constantly, there’s a good chance that he can bust this guy up pretty good.”
“This is the type of opportunity we’ve needed for Malik, a respected, tough fighter that takes him to the next level,” his promoter, Dan Goossen said.
“A win over Chisora is a game changer for Malik in the heavyweight division. He’s got all the tools to be successful; ability, size, quickness, smarts and throw in the charisma, the fans will take notice.”
