By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi believes that unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (24-0, 24 KO’s) is doing the right thing by taking things slowly with his career so that he can build up his skills to a high enough level so that he can have a better chance when he finally steps it up in the future against one of the world champions.
Malignaggi worked the talented Wilder’s fight last Saturday night against Kertson Manswell, and this is what Malignaggi had to say about Wilder: “I think he’s on schedule. I think heavyweights mature late. I don’t think there’s a reason to rush Deontay, especially when the top is ruled by the Klitschkos, who are very dangerous heavyweights. There is no reason to rush him intoa fight like that.”
Here here, I totally agree with Malingaggi. Wilder doesn’t need to be rushed just because some people want him to or others want to see him fail. He needs to be brought along slowly so that his skills and keep improving to the point where he doesn’t have any flaws in his game. In looking at Wilder’s fight against Manswell last Saturday, I noticed a couple of things that Wilder needs improving on before he takes it to the next level. First of all, he’s still not using his jab enough despite having a really long reach. I saw Wilder only occasionally using it against Manswell.
Of course, he had Manswell hurt almost immediately, so you kind of have to give Wilder a pass on that. However, he still wasn’t using it very much before he nailed Manswell with a huge right hand that started the ball rolling in the 1st. On the occasions Wilder did throw his jab, it wasn’t thrown with a lot of snap and speed. It looked too slow for my tastes and not forceful enough to be used as a weapon against a better fighter. Wilder also didn’t seem to react all that well when he was getting backed up by Manswell in the few occasions that Manswell pressured him. I would have liked to have seen Wilder move a little bit better, keep his guard up and handle the pressure a little more smoothly.
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