Deontay Wilder moving up to 10 round bouts

By Boxing News - 07/01/2012 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder moving up to 10 round boutsBy Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (23-0, 23 KO’s) is stepping up from eight rounds to ten rounds starting with his next fight in August against an opponent still to be determined. The 26-year-old Wilder’s next fight has a chance of being televised on Fox Sports, and that’s a big deal. We also could see Wilder being televised on HBO as well in the near future so that boxing fans can catch a glimpse of this young talent.

The 6’7″ Wilder, who took home a heavyweight bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics, is being slowly groomed for a future title shot. He’s got power of this world, but his team doesn’t want to rush him before he’s learned enough to compete against the best.

His cutman Russ Anber said to the tuscaloosanews.com “Deontay is a fantastic prospect in the world of boxing…I’m begging you, please be patient. Developing a fighter takes years and years. He needs to learn his craft.”

Anber knows talent when he sees it. He’s worked with Jean Pascal, David Lemieux, John Scully, Chad Dawson, Troy Ross, Sergio Martinez, Odlanier Solis and many, many more. If Anber is saying that Wilder is a huge talent, then believe him because he knows what quality is.

Wilder is coming off an impressive 3rd round stoppage win over Owen Beck in his ladt fight on June 23rd. It seemed like each time Wilder would connect solidly with one of his huge right hands, Beck would hit the canvas. He couldn’t handle Wilder’s power. If I was to point out an area in Wilder’s game that needs work from that fight I’d have to say his defense. He needs to learn how to block more shots, because he was getting hit with a lot of stiff jabs from Beck in that fight. It’s an easy enough thing for Wilder to work on, because he just needs to keep his guard higher and learn to lean back when his opponent is jabbing him.



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