LAS VEGAS, Nevada – July 17, 2016 – Deontay Wilder, the ?Bronze Bomber,? retained his WBC heavyweight title ? and his undefeated record ? with an eighth-round TKO over shopworn slugger Chris Arreola on Saturday. The result was hardly unexpected. Arreola, whose best days are far behind him, came in as a substitute when Wilder?s original opponent, former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin, failed a drug test. Povetkin would have been ? on paper at least ? Wilder?s toughest test yet. Arreola was not.
So far, Wilder?s biggest asset has also proven to be his most worrisome liability. That asset/liability is his lethal right hand, which was damaged when Deontay outpointed Bermane Stiverne to garner the WBC belt last year. Wilder fractured his money hand again as he dominated Arreola. But Wilder?s left hand alone proved more than sufficient to destroy Arreola, who was floored in the fourth round and then battered until the slaughter was mercifully stopped four rounds later. It was a mismatch, but Wilder?s hometown Alabama fans would pay to see him fight anyone, even stiffs like previous challengers Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas. Although Arreola?s career is on its downside, he?s no stiff ? at least, not yet. However, he was also no match for even a one-handed Wilder.
So, Wilder is still champion, and a fighting one at that, having now made four defenses of the piece of the heavyweight-title pie he won in January of 2015. The WBC lineage goes back to Vitali Klitschko, who retired in 2013 to become a full-time politician in his troubled homeland of Ukraine. Stiverne won the vacant title by stopping none other than Arreola. Then Wilder decisioned Stiverne, in the only Wilder bout to have gone the distance thus far.
Now, Wilder is going to spend some time on the shelf while his mangled mitt heals. Injuries are becoming the defining factor in heavyweight-championship boxing this year. A much-anticipated rematch between current WBO/WBA ?Super? champion Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko, the long-reigning champion Fury upset last November, had to be postponed when Fury suffered a training-camp mishap. If the top ranks of the heavyweight division were ever the subject of a movie, its title would have to be ?The Hurt Locker,? borrowed from the well-regarded war movie of the same name.
After a decade of rule by the Klitschko brothers, the heavyweights are in flux these days. If Wladimir Klitschko regains his title from Fury whenever they do meet in the ring again, he is likely to join his older brother in retirement. If Fury repeats his upset victory, he can look forward to a mega-fight against fellow-Brit Anthony Joshua, who holds the IBF title that was stripped from Fury. A Fury-Joshua showdown would break box-office and pay-per-view records in the United Kingdom, and perhaps provide a momentary distraction from the repercussions of the Brexit referendum.
In the meantime, hard-hitting WBA ?interim? title-holder Luis Ortiz is involved in a surreal internal tournament to determine that organization?s ?regular? champion ? Fury holds its ?super? title. If there were a competition to determine boxing?s weirdest sanctioning body, the WBA would win hands down.
The mess is the division has become is not likely to be cleaned up by the end of this year. If the confusion continues well into 2017, boxing fans may begin to miss the unexciting stability of the Klitschko era. Better to be bored than bewildered.
