Deontay Wilder: Can we not see the wood for the trees?

By Boxing News - 03/18/2014 - Comments

deontay57By Tom McQueen: Deontay Wilder has made a name for himself for two reasons; Firstly for his impressive and obvious power resulting in 31 straight knock outs as a professional. And secondly as a fighter who has taken on, disappointingly, a large number of poor opponents when many have wanted him to move on and step up.

These points at first seem obvious and fair, but looking at how “The Bronze Bomber” has progressed over the last few years and since turning professional I am now starting to think that the criticisms placed on Deontay are not only unfair but possibly even distracting us from a great talent that should be appreciated.

I’ll now try to put across an argument that these criticisms are in fact resulting in fans missing the real positives right in front of our faces. That is, we can not see the wood for the trees.

An obvious problem with making any argument in favor of Deontay’s ability is evidence. There just isn’t any available! Or is this true? As a pro, Deontay has not been in nearly enough rounds to show off enough ability to have people raving about him being the next great heavyweight talent, but what about as an amateur? In a short but successful amateur career the big man used his size and power as well as his boxing ability to win many accolades in a short space of time culminating in a bronze medal at the Olympics! No easy task by anyone’s standards… and also paved way to a very memorable nickname.

This in many ways can show he does in fact have more ability than many give him credit for and isn’t simply a one trick pony relying on power to win fights. This brings us straight onto my next point. His power. It is true we don’t see a lot of Deontay in the ring and what we do see usually has the feel of same old same old, but is this Deontay’s fault? And is it such a bad thing? At the end of the day a fighter can only beat who is put in front of them and there are much worse ways to to win a boxing match than with a knockout… 18 off which have come in the first round.

When this argument is used to support the Bomber many will say the level of opponent has contributed to this impressive 100% KO ratio and that he’s wasted too much time fighting poor opposition instead of moving up the rankings. Had this been said last year then I may have agreed but looking a little closer over his record I don’t think that this is necessarily the case. In his last ten fights he has come up against two undefeated opponents, a former European champion and world title challenger who was a good enough opponent for the up and coming David Price not too long before and David Hayes once upon a time. Nicolai Firtha is present who took both Jonathan Banks and Povetkin the distance and Tyson Fury a round further than he did Deontay. Throw in a past it but recognized former world champion in Liakhovich who Deontay took one round to take out when both Bryant Jennings and Robert Helenius needed 9 rounds a piece! The same number of rounds Derek Chisora needed to get rid of Malik Scott which the Bomber also only needed one round to KO. Noticing a pattern?

Looking through the common opponents with other prospects one thing does become clear. These prospects faced of against these opponents a lot earlier then Wilder did in terms of professional fights. This is again used to discredit The Bomber and used to criticize him with accusations of being wrapped in cotton wool but once again is this fair and true? We have already established that although successful as an amateur, it was a brief career and as a result there is not a lot of competitive experience there which many boxers turn over into the professional ranks with in the bank. As a result if not gaining this some fighters such as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr make up for that with learning ‘on the job’ in the much more punishing and brutal professional ranks. No head guards as was the case when Wilder was an amateur and smaller gloves with longer fights! A willingness to pick up experience in this much more threatening and physical way should surely be applauded not criticized no?

Throw in the fact that in his last ten fights he has taken on opponents in FOUR different countries. Mexico, the UK, the US and most recently Puerto Rico. When was the last time a prospect showed that sort of willingness to go outside his comfort zone and take on challenges abroad? It is rarely seen in the modern game.

So with a deeper look and a less critical eye it can be argued fairly and accurately that in Deontay Wilder the US has not a protected, suspect, talentless fighter facing poor opponents to be gifted a title shot but instead has a former Olympic medalist who has taken time to gain much needed experience, a willingness to travel and has such natural power that he can not only move up and step up but does so in a way that makes it look almost too easy.

To criticize is human and is necessary to encourage improvement and progress… But sometimes the criticism detracts from positives which are all too apparent and should really be applauded. Whether or not this is the case with Deontay Wilder remains to be seen but maybe a few more people will become part of the ‘bomb squad’ after reading this and not be so quick to judge and a little quicker to enjoy. Bombs Away.



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