By James Hardiman (Chaos J): I have just had the pleasure of scrolling through one of the most comical write-ups I have ever read in my life. I know ‘Mr Talented’ has a brilliant track record of pumping out the finest Boxing nonsense but even this is gold for his usual high standards.
The article in question refers to Chris Arreola (34-2-29 KO’s) and Deontay Wilder (20-0-20 KO’s) as the next thing to rule the Heavyweight division once the Klitschko Brothers eventually hang up their gloves. I would love to know how this completely delusional pre-school scribbler has come to this conclusion and can still count himself as a credible writer and more importantly, count himself as mentally sane.
First off, I want to start with Chris Arreola who fights the little known Eric Molina (18-1-14 KO’s) in Texas next month. Now, for the record I like Arreola. I think he’s a respectable, decent Heavyweight who fought bravely to no avail against Vitali Klitschko in 2009 and lost to a Majority decision against a future Vitali victim in Polish Tomasz Adamek, a match I personally believe Arreola would of won by decision if he had not injured his hand in the later rounds. I also like the way he has picked himself up and is trying to earn himself another title shot/payday (depending on how you look at it) against one of the Klitschko’s unlike the immensely unlikeable David Haye who is only interested in rematching a Klitschko to line his pockets once more before riding off into the sunset.
However, all these good words about Arreola mean nothing in the sense of him taking over the division. He should of won against Adamek for sure but how can someone say he will rule a division when he couldn’t even knock a beefed up Cruiserweight out? At best he would of won by a slightly favourable Unanimous but even more likely he would of been on the nice end of a Majority call. A win over Adamek would of been huge for Arreola but that says it all, Adamek would get ruined by most genuine Heavyweight’s who know how to throw and block a punch. Has Arreola been out of shape? Yes he has but who’s fault is that? And how is having the excuse of being out of shape for the biggest fights of his career going to help him in this division in the future?
Onto Wilder now and if you was to ask the casual American Boxing follower, including the writer of the mentioned article, they would more then likely hype up Wilder as the best thing since sliced bread but the real fans and writers in America are rightly more sceptical about how good Wilder actually is. Now in all fairness, Wilder has put away everything in front of him with absolute ease. He has most of the attributes you would want in a fighter: Tall, quick and powerful so what more could you want? Well seeing him fight someone with a pulse would be a good start. ‘Mr Talented’ gives us his verdict on Tyson Fury and David Price and claims, rightly too, that both of those fighters have poor defensive skills. Yes this is true but how good are Wilder’s? Has any of his 20 opponents even thrown a punch at him? The furthest he has gone in a fight is to the 4th round so what happens when/if he steps up and fights someone who is good enough to go to, let’s say the 10th round for example, will Wilder suddenly feel the pressure of being in unexplored terrain? Will he fatigue? And how does anyone know how Deontay will stack up to an unfamiliar straight right on the chin? My guess is that his trainer Jay Deas has a rough idea of how he will fair against a big puncher and that’s why he’s still matching him up with fighters who look like they’ve just rolled out of a pub.
Don’t get me wrong, Wilder could be as good as ‘Mr Talented’ claims. Like I’ve said before, he has most of the weapons but how can he be rated as better then Fury, Price or Helenius? Like Wilder, these three fighters are unbeaten, they are all tall and powerful and Fury and Helenius have fought around the same number of fights (not exactly but in the same ball park) as Wilder. Roughly the same number of fights yes but same quality of opponent? Absolutely not. So the difference is, yes Fury, Helenius and Price have shown some major defensive flaws in their games respectively but that is because they are fighting a class of opponent able to expose these flaws. How will we ever know Wilder’s defensive skills if he keeps getting put in with 3rd tier opponents? All that’s going to do is mask a potential defensive problem for when/if he does eventually step up. Also, Wilder has knocked out 20 bums. Helenius, who should of lost to Brit Derek Chisora in his last match, has knocked out 3 former world champions in less fights then Wilder. I’m not saying that means everything but you be the judge. Maybe Chisora isn’t as bad as people make him out to be afterall.
This idiotic writer can spray his boxing stink around like a skunk with diarrhea all he wants but people who know the game see right through him. People might write off fighters like Chambers, Thompson, Solis, Chisora and even Arreola himself as bums but atleast they had the balls to step it up. When will Wilder?
Feel free to hit me up at thelastherodnb[at]hotmail.co.uk
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