By Keith Idec

LOS ANGELES – A masked Deontay Wilder stood still, seemingly stone-faced, as Tyson Fury yelled at him Friday afternoon on a stage set up outside Staples Center.

While Fury pointed and screamed at Wilder, “The Bronze Bomber” remained calm, careful not to waste any energy as he approaches the biggest fight of his 10-year pro career.

Before they weighed in, the undefeated knockout artist scoffed at Fury’s contention that the defending champion is nervous approaching their 12-round fight Saturday night for Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title.

If anyone’s nervous, Wilder assured a group of reporters, it’s Fury. Wilder reminded those that agree with Fury that the anger Wilder has shown at times this week is an emotion he usually unloads during fight week – nothing out of the ordinary in advance of their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event ($74.99 in HD).

“I’ve showed this all my fights and every last one of them, what happened?,” Wilder asked. “What happened? I’ve knocked ‘em out, didn’t I? So if this is a sign of weakness, ooh, I can’t wait to show them this sign I’m gonna possess in the ring, if they think this is weakness. They know this is not a game. They’ve gotta have something to say to you guys. They can’t just sit still and be quiet, because then, you would have your own judgment on them. ‘Oh, he’s quiet. That means he’s nervous.’

“The thing about fear, you could sense it, you could smell it, you could identify it and call it by its name. I’ve been doing this for a long time, baby. I know what fear looks like, I know what it smells like. I can identify it. He’s scared. And he should be. He should be, because this right here, we don’t play around. We put our life on the line right here. And the way I’m feeling, I’m very dangerous. I’m a dangerous person up in this sport.”

Many boxing experts consider Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) the most devastating puncher in the entire sport. The 33-year-old Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native has won seven consecutive bouts by knockout since he went the distance during his 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Bermane Stiverne (25-3-1, 21 KOs), from whom Wilder won the WBC crown in January 2015.

Wilder knocked out Stiverne in the first round of their rematch a year ago at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The 30-year-old Fury (27-0, 19 KOs), of Manchester, England, hasn’t scored a conventional knockout since he dropped Joey Abell four times and stopped Abell (34-10, 32 KOs, 2 NC) in the fourth round of their February 2014 bout in London. Since then, he has defeated Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs), Christian Hammer (23-5, 13 KOs) and Sefer Seferi (23-2-1, 21 KOs) when each of those opponents declined to continue between rounds in their respective fights.

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