By Scott Gilfoid: #8 WBC challenger Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) was in a fine trash talking mood last night when being interviewed by Showtime broadcaster Steve Farhood to discuss his important fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) on January 16th on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Szpilka says he is going to whip Wilder’s backside when he gets him in the ring and take his highly valued WBC title, which many fans see as the most important of the four major heavyweight title straps.
It is hard to picture the flawed Szpilka beating a talent like Wilder, because he lost to Bryant Jennings last year in being stopped in the 10th round. Jennings had Szpilka down on the canvas and totally dominated every minute of that fight. I mean, Jennings could not miss with any of his punches, and had an easy time working the Poland born Szpilka over with his power shots. Szpilka made the light hitting Jennings look like the second coming of George Foreman in the ring.
“Artur Szpilka is future heavyweight champion, future Polish champion and a wonderful person. I can’t wait, man. I can’t wait,” Szpilka said, “I was so excited. When I was very young I dreamed that one day I would be champion, and now I have that opportunity. Thank you to the champ for giving me the chance. But you don’t see what you’re doing. This is no joke. This is no (expletive) joke.”
Well, it’s nice that Szpilka is excited about his fight with Wilder, but I think he needs to see this fight from a more grounded perspective. Instead of thinking he’s going to go out and whip Wilder, I think it would be better for Szpilka to go out with a more realistic goal for what he wants to accomplish in the ring next January.
My hope would be that Szpilka would come into the fight trying not to get knocked out by him. I think that would be the better goal. If Szpilka could go the full 12 rounds, I see that as a moral victory for Szpilka, because only one fighter has ever gone the distance with Wilder and that was the steel-chinned former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne. And you can make a strong argument that the only reason that Stiverne went the full 12 rounds with Wilder is because he broke his right hand on the forehead of Stiverne in the 4th round.
After Wilder suffered a fractured hand early in the fight, he was not able to land with the usual punching power that he’d been landing with. Wilder also had to change the way he threw his punches in the fight after suffering the injury. Instead of throwing straight right hands like he normally does to KO his opponents, Wilder had to start clubbing with his shots, and that took away a lot of the punching power from his shots.
“This is very important for Polish fans. This is when I change my story, change my life, change what people think about Polish people here,” Szpilka said. “Polish people have heart, we have everything. And now I must show everyone what I want. I am so confident, you will see. I can’t wait.”
This is not about nationality in the Wilder vs. Szpilka fight. I see this fight more about who the better fighter is, and who the better athlete is. If Szpilka is the better fighter, then it does not matter where he is from. However, I just think he is not in the same class as Wilder, because if he were he would not have lost to Jennings.
Further, if Szpilka were in the same class as Deontay, he would not have been dropped by a mediocre fighter like Mike Mollo in their fight a couple of years ago. Szpilka was badly hurt in that fight and ready to be knocked out.
“Listen, I don’t care what everyone thinks. I care what my team thinks. I care what my family, my people think,” Szpilka said. “I’m going to kick his ass. Remember, champ, I’m going to kick your ass. Happy Holidays, champ. Do not sleep.”
Poor Szpilka, I hope he doesn’t take the loss to hard when Deontay stops him, because I don’t want Szpilka to retire or get down on himself when/if things don’t work out for him in this contest.
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