Deontay Wilder: Overrated or under challenged?

By Boxing News - 06/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder: Overrated or under challenged?By Chris Beale: Unlike some of the writers on this site, I don’t see the fuss about 6’7″ unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (22-0, 22 KO’s). The boxer has not took on anyone with skill and his knockout record may look good on paper, but is made up of people who often have almost as many losses as wins.

On Saturday, Wilder takes on Owen Beck (29-10, 20 KOs) in an eight round bout at the Killer Buzz Arena, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. While this is a step up from Wilder’s recent canon fodder victims, this is still not a good enough level to really say he’s a good boxer. I’m not saying he’s a bad boxer. Anyone with his knockout rate is impressive, BUT he has not fought anyone of credibility.

Some writers seem to criticize Boxers like Tyson Fury, David Haye, Derrick Chisora and David Price among others, and the same writers glorify Wilder. However, all of those boxers have proven themselves against better boxers than Wilder has.

Take David Price for example. He beat Sam Sexton (14-3, 6 KOs) last time out, and Sexton had only been beaten previously by Derek Chisora, yet Price was criticized by some on this site for taking on a spent force. When Wilder takes on a guy that has lost majority of his last few fights and has not fought in years, he’s considered to be taking on a “dangerous threat.”

Wilder is living a protected existence. He is fighting fighters who he knows he can beat. He’s is being groomed by his promoter into looking unbeatable so when he does take on a serious opponent, he will earn more money despite not being properly test until that point.

If I was Wilder, I would want to prove I deserve to be in the heavyweight elite. I would want to face the best. I would be looking at taking on the loser of the Haye/Chisora fight as both have been in with world champions and if he is ever going to dethrone the Elite he needs to start testing himself. If he survives that I would look at Fury, Price and the Winner of that fight then take on the WBA paper world champion Alexander Povetkin.

However, I see Wilder struggling against any of those, the gap in class between what he is used to and what he should be ready for is that between night and day. His promoter has been feeding him opponents he will learn nothing from for too long. At least with Fury experiments against his opponents. For example, in his fight against 40-year-old Martin Rogan recently, Fury fought out of the Southpaw stance the entire fight. Wilder seems to just be knocking out bums for the sake of it.



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