Matthew Macklin does not see Deontay Wilder making the necessary adjustments to topple WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in their trilogy fight - which is expected to land in July. (photo by Ryan Hafey)

Last month, Fury stopped Wilder in the seventh round of a one-sided fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

After the loss, Wilder exercised his contractual option for an immediate trilogy fight.

Some have compared the loss to the unexpected defeat that Anthony Joshua suffered in June of 2019, when he was stopped in the seventh round by Andy Ruiz.

Joshua exercised his right to an immediate rematch, and then dominated Ruiz over twelve rounds to recapture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight belts in December.

But Macklin does not expect Wilder to make the same adjustments that Joshua did.

“Fighters that lose and come back better are fighters that accept where they fell short,” Macklin told iFL TV. 

“People who try and search for reasons and excuses, they’re the ones who don’t improve, because they haven’t dealt with the problem. You’ve got to accept it, then deal with it, then you can improve, but if you're in denial, you can’t fix it.

“If he’s going to improve, he has to accept what happened and what went wrong. Mark Breland is the man who stopped the fight, he was spot on, that’s the guy I’d be listening to! He cared about Wilder, he cared about him as a person - he stopped the fight, he knew his man couldn’t win, the writing was on the wall, he could see where it was going.

“I don’t see Wilder doing what Joshua did with Ruiz Jr. Rob McCracken and AJ decided he was too big, too muscular, they mentally looked past him, they didn’t give him the respect he should have. They weren’t focused, then they became focused, they came in at 16 stone 7lbs, they were more mobile, they didn’t trade, they boxed him and kept it long.

“He made adjustments, but I don’t know Wilder can do that. He didn’t look past Fury. So what is there to rectify? Is he suddenly going to become a slick boxer? No, I don’t think so, he could but I can’t see it. It’s much harder for Wilder to rectify.”