(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: A day after battering WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-2-1, 21 KOs) to take his WBC title in a 12 round unanimous decision, Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) is setting his sights on IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) as the guy he wants to face most of all in 2015.
Wilder, 6’7”, feels he’s ready to end Klitschko’s long heavyweight rein as the champion in the division. Klitschko has held one or more titles since 2006, and he’s not had any serious competition during all those years.
Klitschko’s last tough opponent was back in 2003 when he was trounced in 2003 when he was trounced in 2 rounds by Corrie Sanders. Since then, it’s pretty much nothing but mediocre heavyweights for Wladimir. He did lose to Lamon Brewster by a 5th round knockout in 2004, but Brewster was a very average heavyweight who Klitschko should have never lost to if he had fought him the right way by using his jab and staying on the outside instead of slugging it out.
Wilder, 29, will likely need to wait until the end of the year to face Wladimir in a unification fight, because Wladimir has a title defense that he needs to get out of the way on April 25th against Bryant Jennings or Shannon Briggs.
Wilder sees his youth, speed, power and ring smarts as being too much for the 38-year-old Wladimir. Wilder already is familiar with Wladimir after having worked as his sparring partner to get him ready for his title defense against Mariusz Wach in late 2012.
Wilder ended up sparring more than 50 rounds with Wladimir, and he learned a lot about how to beat the Ukrainian during that time. There’s no doubt that Wilder had success against Wladimir during the sparring sessions.
“When you look at the performance I put on tonight, of course that’s [Wilder vs. Klitschko] going to be the biggest fight in the world,” Wilder said via the Manchestereveningnews.com. “I’m looking forward to that fight – that’s one of the fights that will be made. I think he wants the WBC belt – he’s said many times – back in the family. Now I have it. I’m an exciting heavyweight, he’s an exciting heavyweight – two big guys going at it. There’s nothing like two big giants going at it. I think that is going to be a great fight when it happens. I’m not going to say ‘if,’ I’m going to say ‘when’ it happens.”
“I’ve got youth, I’m faster, and I can fight on the inside too,” Wilder said. “People don’t know. I think my speed, my youth and my IQ in the ring, I think all those attributes about me pose a lot of threats about him,” Wilder said.
Wilder’s right hand power would be enough to create nightmares for Wladimir, because the Ukrainian heavyweight has always had a shaky chin. With Wilder’s size and hand speed, he’d be able to land his right hand clean much of the time, and it would come down to Wladimir either being able to take the shots or not.
Wladimir, 245, would have a 25 pound weight advantage over the 219 pound Wilder, but I don’t see that helping Wladimir. He had a 20+ weight advantage over the 225 pound Corrie Sanders in 2003, and it didn’t help Wladimir at all. Sanders was too quick and too powerful for him.
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