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Can Deontay Wilder Be Great? By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Fri, 23 Mar 2018  It?s almost 3 weeks now and dust has settled from that exciting fight at Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York between WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39KOs) and top contender Luis Ortiz from Cuba. Wilder was once again trying to prove he is the best the Heavyweight division in Boxing has to offer regardless of Anthony Joshua (WBA/IBF champ) or Joseph Parker (WBO champ) who will fight to unify their titles on March 31, 2018. For starters Wilder will have to defeat the winner of that bout and over time do something to rival what the Klitschko brothers have done in the Heavyweight division. The Klitschko brothers dominated the Heavyweight division for over a decade. Wladmir beat then WBO champ Chris Byrd for the title in 2000, then lost to Corrie Sanders in 2003. His first reign was 2? years with 5 defenses. He would again fight and defeat Byrd in 2006 for another version of the Heavyweight title (IBF). After defeating Byrd for a second time, he would go on to defend and unify his IBF title 18 times in 10 years until he lost to Tyson Fury in 2015 and came close to regaining the title when he fought current champ Anthony Joshua in April 2017! His older brother Vitali beat Herbie Hide for the WBO title in 1999 then made 2 defenses and then lost to Chris Byrd in 2000. After a loss to former WBC Champion Lennox Lewis in 2003 (a fight Vitali was performing well in and ahead on scorecards, but stopped due to a cut), Lewis quickly retired instead of granting Vitali an immediate rematch. Vitali would win the vacant title by defeating Corrie Sanders in 2004. He made one defense that same year and then went into politics. Remarkably, Vitali came back 4 years later in 2008 to defeat Nigerian Samuel Peter and made 9 defenses and eventually retired in 2012. Wow! No matter how unexciting some writers may have labeled the two Brothers who were former Heavyweight champions from Europe, they were great and simultaneously held the Heavyweight titles. Along with being in the ?Great? category are former heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, George Forman, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, etc. Who is Deontay Wilder and can he be great? Deontay Wilder is from Alabama, USA. He began his amateur career at the age of 19 in 2005. He was an Amateur National and US amateur champ by 2007. In 2008 he won a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. After the Olympics he wasted no time and he immediately turned professional that same year. He has defeated all fighters in his way and won the WBC title in 2015. He has made 7 successful defenses of his title and he now stands at the threshold of becoming a mainstream fighter after defeating Luis Ortiz. Prior to the Ortiz fight, Wilder said he will easily reach 50-0 after he unifies the titles and fights the mandatories. That accomplishment would definitely make him great! He also has to dominate the Heavyweight division much the same way the Klitschko brothers did. When either Klitchko brother lost a fight they come back stronger and smarter and their second reign as champions were even longer than the first reign. Because of Luis Ortiz?s ability to score against Wilder during the fight, surely Joshua, Parker, or any other Heavyweight hoping to fight Wilder in the near future may see something they can use to their advantage should any face Wilder in the future. The expression, ?I see something? which is what Sugar Ray Leonard said after seeing Marvin Hagler struggle to defeat John Mugabi back in 1986 may apply to Wilder?s game. However, Wilder has a lot of heart, courage, intelligence, confidence, and punching power. If he expects and wants to break Rocky Marciano?s record in the Heavyweight division, defeat the winner of Joshua-Parker, and dominate the division like the Klitchkos brothers, he will have to make the necessary adjustments in his game. He certainly has the talent. It will be interesting to see if Wilder can indeed be great. Boxing Notes?.Mickey Garcia continues to move up the P4P list by winning his 4th world title a couple of weeks ago in his 4th weight class. Attention: ?Powers that be?. A perfect fight for Mikey is a fight against former champ Danny Garcia on PPV at 147lbs, better than going back down to 135lbs or unifying 140lbs division. Mikey is of Mexican descent, speaks Spanish, Handsome, etc. Danny is Puerto Rican, a very good fighter and former champ. If Mikey can defeat Danny he cracks into the Mainstream PPV market. That fight does 1 million PPV buys. You read it here first... Oscar Valdez showed a lot of heart in him overcoming adversity to beat Quigg a couple of weeks ago. Look for Valdez to unify the featherweight division and become the top ?Dawg? at 126lbs. Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com About the Author: ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over fifteen years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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