His style is less prime George Foreman and more drunken tranny in a White Castle parking lot brawl?
Back a couple of years ago, this is what I had to say about Deontay Wilder and his place in boxing?and it still applies to the Wilder of 2018:
?To some, the 6′7″ ?Bronze Bomber? is a laughingstock of a fraud whose every move is reviled and whose every flaw is marked as proof of his ultimate, absolute terribleness.
To others, Wilder is the savior of the heavyweight division and the harbinger of a restored American presence at the top of boxing?s heavyweight food chain.
To the realist with proper inoculation against the virus that is boxing hype, Wilder is what he is and he?s doing as well as can be expected against a proper level of opposition.?
The truth is that Deontay Wilder is an awful boxer whose skills have actually eroded since I wrote the above. Given his weight loss and the sloppiness of his recent form, one can safely assume that when he hits the gym these days, it?s all cardio and no boxing work. His style is less prime George Foreman and more drunken tranny in a White Castle parking lot brawl.
Forget footwork and defense, to not have, at the very least, a sharp, consistent jab?especially with his long arms and Mark Breland as a trainer?speaks of someone who could very well be untrainable. Everything about the ?Bronze Bomber? screams of someone who has fully bought into his own hype?all he needs is the right hand and forget everything else. It doesn?t look like he?s even trying anything else anymore.
The other truth about Wilder, however, is that his big right hand HAS been enough to get him to the top and it?s enough, at least in this day and age, to get by. It?s hard to argue about how much better he could be with a stiff jab making way for a straighter, even stronger right hand when a looping bomb thrown from the back pocket has been enough to get him a world title and a 40-0 record.
And Saturday?s TKO win over Luis Ortiz at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn proved that Wilder has a big heart to go along with his big right hand.
The defending WBC champ was outboxed by the crafty Cuban for almost the entire bout, buzzed on a couple of occasions, but was ultimately able to pull it all together to close the show in the tenth. It wasn?t a pretty win and, to be honest, it served to showcase Wilder?s flaws as much as his one big strength, but he got by his best opponent to date and someone widely regarded as a top 3 heavyweight.
It shouldn?t be forgotten, also, that signing on to fight Ortiz right when an Anthony Joshua blockbuster was close to being realized, was a touch of matchmaking bravado that had many of us boxing people suspecting a fix. (And, to be fair, three judges? scorecards in Wilder?s favor at the time of the stoppage and a convenient pause in the action at the beginning of round eight, after Wilder had been rocked at the end of the seventh, kind of supports the idea that something shady may have been in play.) Thankfully, Wilder ended the fight with his fists and wouldn?t have to rely on dubious scoring.
Now, Wilder moves on to a big money title unification bout with Anthony Joshua (assuming Joshua gets by Joseph Parker this March 31).
Flaws and all, the big American is moving forward and he?ll be coming into the biggest fight of his career as reliant upon one big punch as ever before in his prizefighting life. If anything, as he immerses himself further into his gimmick as the one-punch, fist-slinging bomber, Wilder might be even more of a one-tool fighter when he finally steps into the ring against Joshua.
Wilder is definitely not doing himself any favors by limiting his paths to victory and, against a big, strong, and athletic Joshua who IS developing a solid skill set as his career advances, leaving the UK with all four belts seems almost like a hopeless kamikaze mission.
But, then again, there were plenty of people out there insisting that his one big weapon would not be enough to beat Ortiz, either?
