By Scott Gilfoid: Sky Sports analyst and former world champion fighter Carl Froch appeared to impressed with the confidence of Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) yesterday in watching how he conducted himself at the weigh-in with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) ahead of their fight tonight on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Szpilka gave Deontay some lip service during the face off after the weigh-in, saying “You are going down. You are going down.”
However, Froch says he’s not sure whether Szpilka can get the victory or not on Saturday.
“Szpilka looks very well and very confident. He shouted to his crowd and really set the scene,” Froch said to skysports.com. “These people are right behind him, the Polish force. I’ve been talking to his trainers and they’re very confident that this guy can fight and means business. You never know with the heavyweights.”
I noticed the same thing Froch did about Szpilka’s confidence, but being a good judge of body language and face characteristics, I think it was just false confidence that Szpilka was showing during the weigh-in. It didn’t look like real confidence to me.
In other words, Szpilka looked to me to be a guy that was acting and putting on a big bluff to try and intimidate Deontay and to show his own loyal Polish fans that he’s not afraid of the talented 6’7” Deontay. I believe it’s artificial/phony confidence on Szpilka’s part in an attempt to hide the insecurities that likely are hidden.
Even if Szpilka is completely confident, I think it’s a bad thing and it will lead to him getting knocked out fast by Deontay. Szpilka can’t afford to be blind to his own faults in the ring, because he’s too easy to hit, slow on his feet, and simply not talented enough to be walking around like he’s a sure thing in this fight. To me, Szpilka’s confidence is unhealthy as heck.
I think Froch might have seen some fool’s gold when looking at how confident Szpilka is. I don’t see it as the real thing. We’re going to see tonight how confident Szpilka is in the ring when Deontay starts throwing power shots. My guess is the southpaw Szpilka will be timid as a lamb out there in the ring with Deontay. It would be crazy not to be.
Szpilka already has a history of being knocked out in the past, when he was stopped in the 10th round by Bryant Jennings two years ago. Now, Szpilka is looking to face a much bigger puncher in Deontay, who can end matters with one single shot. If Szpilka is legitimately confident to the point where he feels infallible in the ring, then I see this being one of Deontay’s easier wins of his career. Szpilka will make it a simple fight for Deontay if he plods forward straight at him like he’s done i his past fights against weak opposition.
Szpilka is in the big time now in facing Deontay. He’s not in there any longer with weak opposition like his last four opponents Yasmany Consuegra, Ty Cobb, Manuel Quezada and Tomasz Adamek.
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