Deontay Wilder vs. Eric Molina looking likely for June 13th

By Boxing News - 05/07/2015 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: It’s looking like WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) will be defending his WBC title against knockout artist #12 WBC Eric Molina on June 13th. The fight isn’t a done deal yet, but Molina is the guy that is being mentioned for the tall 6’7” Wilder for this fight, according to Dan Rafael.

This is a decent opponent for Wilder for his first defense of his WBC heavyweight strap. Molina has the size at 6’4”, power and the exciting fighting style to make it interesting for Wilder for as long as this fight lasts. A lot of heavyweight champions would probably choose a weaker opponent than Molina for their first title defense, so you’ve got to give Deontay credit for facing a guy who has a puncher’s chance of winning.

Look at the guys that IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has been facing in the last years. We’re not even talking about his first defense. Wladimir has been fighting guys like Jean Marc Mormeck, Francisco Pianeta, Tony Thompson, Alex Lipia, and Kubrat Pulev. I would favor Molina over half of those guys.

Deontay needs to get a couple of wins under his belt before he looks to face Klitschko in a unification fight in the near future. Wladimir has talked about the fight potentially taking place in 2016, because he’s got to face his WBO mandatory challenger Tyson Fury next, and possibly another mandatory after that.

Wilder will soon find himself facing guys like former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin, who is moving up quickly to try and get a world title shot against Wilder with the impressive wins he’s been racking up lately.

Povetkin should be a decent test for Wilder, but definitely a very, very winnable fight for him. Povetkin lacks the size for him to compete against a big fighter Deontay’s size. We already saw that in Wladimir’s easy win over Povetkin in the past.

Molina’s only chance against Deontay is if he goes after him immediately and tries to nail him with a big shot right off the bat. If Molina starts off slowly in the 1st and 2nd rounds, he’s going to get mowed down quickly by Wilder. He can’t afford to start slowly against a big punching fighter like Wilder, because his power is just way too much for a fighter as easy to hit as Molina is.

We saw Chris Arreola destroy Molina in one round a few years ago. While Molina has improved since then, he’s still going to be vulnerable to Deontay’s huge punching power in the early going of this fight.



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