Malik Scott, trainer for former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, says his fighter was very pleased that Anthony Joshua scored a brutal one-punch knockout of Robert Helenius on Saturday night.

Back in October of last year, Wilder knocked Helenius out cold with a single punch in the very first round.

Joshua took a risk by facing Helenius on a week's notice - after his original opponent, Dillian Whyte, was pulled from the fight after testing positive for a banned substance.

After six rounds of tactical boxing, it appeared that Joshua vs. Helenius had a good chance at going the full distance.

That scenario quickly ended in the seventh round, when Joshua connected with a big right hand that dropped Helenius down and out.

Scott was watching from ringside at the O2 Arena in London. Earlier in the night, Scott worked the corner for Gerald Washington in his co-featured fight with Derek Chisora.

The stage is now set, provided that a deal is finalized, for Joshua and Wilder to collide on a January date in Saudi Arabia.

Wilder was happy to see a knockout ending, because he believes Joshua's ability to close the show will generate a lot more interest in their showdown.

"[Wilder] was like 'we needed that.' We both said the same thing because at first it was looking like it was getting ready to go the distance," Scott said to the October Red YouTube channel.

'So when the knockout came I called him on FaceTime and he was like 'I’m glad he got that, we needed it done just like that.' So we’re both satisfied, the fight is bigger to me than it was because of the knockout, so shoutout to AJ to going out there and getting the job done.

"Was I really impressed besides the knockout? No. Did it give me type of feeling that we got some trouble coming in January? No. It actually makes me more confident. I know that he only has three or four rounds in the ring with Deontay before he gets knocked out. It went up to the [seventh] round, but before then - the story is that AJ was being patient. He wasn’t trying to go for the knockout. That’s the sales pitch. But I really look at it like he wasn’t taking chances early on.

"And that’s like a good thing, especially when your next fight is possibly Deontay Wilder, who’s the hardest puncher in the history of the sport. Deontay is a very dangerous fighter right now. Deontay is coming to send him to the next dimension and that is his intention. When he is not punching at you, he is punching through you."