By Lee Smith: I’ve heard people saying that Deontay Wilder (27-0, 27 KO’s) is the next big thing, the next heavyweight champion, the man to take over from the Klitschko’s. If this was true then surely after 27 fights and 27 KO’s he would be a world champ by now or at least be in the running for a world title shot. However, he isn’t a world champ, nor is he even close to getting a world title shot. In fact, he isn’t even ranked in the top 25 by BoxRec.
This came as a surprise to me taking into account the amount of fights he’s had. So I looked at his record and the people he had fought and straight away knew exactly why he had such a poor ranking. The fighters he’s beaten (if you want to call them fighters) were shocking and I mean shocking. For some reason whether it be down to Wilder or his promoters, he has been fighting journeymen in pretty much all of his fights. You can understand this at the beginning of his career but 27 fights on and the fact he’s just beaten a fighter with a record of 15-9 is a joke.
What I also noticed is that despite him having 27 fights and being called the next world champ, was that Britain had 5, yes 5 heavyweights all ranked above Wilder in the BoxRec Rankings. These Fighters being David Haye, Tyson Fury, David Price, Audley Harrison and Derek Chisora. 3 of those fighter mentioned have had less fights that Wilder.
Looking at records and achievements you can totally understand why they are ranked above Wilder though. By the time David Haye had had 27 fights, he had already been KO’d, bounced back to unify the cruiserweight division, won a world Title at heavyweight and was preparing to fight Wladimir Klitschko. In Tyson Fury’s 2nd fight, he fought someone with a 21-3 record, yet Deontay Wilder is fighting a 15-9 journeymen in his 27th fight. Fury has also fought 4 undefeated fighters, 2 world title challengers and a former world champ and beaten them all. David Price has already won the British & Commonwealth titles, as well as beating 2 former world title challengers and despite a 2nd Round KO loss in his previous fight against Tony Thompson, he is still ranked above Wilder. Not to mention that Wilder’s 28th opponent and his 1st real test will be the man who Price knocked unconscious in a round in half as many fights. Derek Chisora has had a lot less fights than Wilder, yet has already had a world title shot, a European Title shot, won the British & Commonwealth titles and managed to lose 4 times, yet he is still ranked well above Wilder. And finally Audley Harrison is ranked above Wilder and I don’t think anything has to be said about Audley Harrison’s career.
Maybe I am being unfair on Wilder and he could prove me wrong on Saturday by doing a first round job on Harrison, but all that will prove is he is as good as David Price was in his 14th fight. Personally I think Wilder hasn’t got that experience of going into the later rounds having only gone 4 rounds at the most, so I think he needs to get Harrison out of there early otherwise he may struggle in the later rounds and Harrison will know this so will likely just try to survive the early rounds.
The one thing I will give Wilder credit for is fighting in England as you don’t see many American’s crossing the pond these days so hats off to him for that. An impressive win is vital for Wilder in this fight and it’ll be interesting to see whether he can deliver and prove he is a genuine prospect or just some fighter protected by his promoter’s to make him look good.
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