By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (24-0, 24 KO’s) has been improving by leaps and bounds since turning pro in 2008. Wilder did a superb job of knocking out a tough Kertson Manswell in the 1st round in his last fight, but now Wilder needs another step up opponent so that he can keep improving and moving up the ranks.
I’d like to see Wilder take on some fringe contenders like Chauncy Welliver, Tyson Fury, Mariuz Wach, Alexander Dimitrenko, Franceso Pianeta, Kubrat Pulev, or Tony Thompson right about now. Any one of those guys would be a good fight to help hone Wilder’s skills and help push him up the ranks to the top 15. I don’t see any one of those guys being much of any problem for Wilder, because he’s so powerful and fast that all it would take is one clean shot and he’d have any one of those guys out cold.
What Wilder can’t do is keep fighting the lower guys that aren’t able to make it out of the first round. Those fights are useless because the guys are folding too quickly for Wilder to benefit much from fighting them. It may be that Wilder will still knock everyone out in the first two or three rounds even when he starts moving up against better opposition, but that’s something he will have to find out. He needs to start facing the bottom feeders now in the the heavyweight division, and not the 2nd and 3rd tier guys. He needs the bottom ranked guys in the 1st tier, because those guys are the next step for the 6’7′ Wilder.
When Wilder first turned professional after winning the bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics all he had was an amazing right hand going for him. That’s all Wilder needed, because his right hand bombs were too much for his opposition.
But Wilder’s team have developed his jab and left hand to the point where they compliment his right hand quite nicely. You can now say that Wilder is an all around threat, and can knockout anyone in boxing even if his right hand were suddenly taken out of commission by a serious injury during the course of battle.
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