By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight talent Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs) will be back in the ring in two months from now on September 26th in a fight that will be taking place in the United States on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. The opponent hasn’t been picked out yet for the big punching 6’7” Wilder, but it could be former two time world title challenger Chris Arreola (36-4, 31 KOs), according to Dan Rafael, if Arreola gets past his next fight against Freddy Kassi (18-3, 10 KOs) in their 10 round bout on Showtime Championship Boxing on July 18th from the Don Haskins Convention Center, in El Paso, Texas, USA.
This is a voluntary defense for Wilder to get him ready for his mandatory in early 2016 against #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin.
For Wilder, this will be his second defense of his World Boxing Council title he won earlier this year with a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over WBC champ Bermane Stiverne. In Wilder’s first defense last June, he defeated Eric Molina by a 9th round knockout. Wilder probably could have finished the fight early if he’d wanted to, but he wanted to test out his surgically repaired right hand that he broke in the Stiverne fight.
Wilder had to get used to fighting with the hand, and he finally did when he lowered the boom on Molina in the 9th round. He dropped Molina four times in the bout, and one of the knockdowns was from a beautiful left hook to the head.
It’s rare for Wilder to get knockdowns with his left hook, but it shows that he’s developing that weapon more and more with each progressing fight. If Wilder can make his left hand more of a weapon, he’ll be virtually unstoppable because he’s already got arguably the best right hand in boxing. Wilder’s jab is also becoming a real weapon for him as well.
Arreola’s career has kind of gone downhill since his loss to former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2009. Arreola was beaten the next year in losing a 12 round decision to Tomasz Adamek in 2010. Arreola won seven fights in a row after the loss to Adamek, but then in 2013, Arreola was soundly beaten by Stiverne in a fight in which Arreola’s nose was shattered by a hard right hand.
Arreola came back from the fight to defeat Seth Mitchell by a 1st round knockout in September 2013. In a side note, Mitchell hasn’t fought since and it’s unclear if he’ll fight again. After the win over Mitchell, Arreola was stopped in the 6th round by Stiverne in May 2014. Arreola took off 10 months and came back looking flabby and out of shape in beating Curtis Harper by an 8 round decision last March in his last fight.
Wilder’s punching power will make it very difficult for Arreola to get anything started up against him. As we saw in Arreola’s two fights against Stiverne, he has a problem getting past a hard jab. If Wilder is able to keep Arreola busy with his jab, this will be an easy fight. But Wilder is going to need to use his right hand more against Arreola than he did in the Molina fight, because Arreola is going to be putting a lot of pressure on him looking to score a knockout. If Wilder doesn’t unleash his right hand, he may struggle against Arreola. Wilder can’t be afraid to throw his right hand if he wants to dominate his opposition. Against Molina, Wilder fought in a timid manner, as he was afraid being countered if he threw his right hand and missed.
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