By Scott Gilfoid: The recently knocked out Artur Szpilka (20-2, 15 KOs) says he suffered a broken left hand in his 9th round knockout loss to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It’s unclear what round the injury to Szpilka’s hand occurred, as he was still using his left hand all the way up until the end of the fight.
In fact, Szpilka was attempting to throw a wide left hook at the time that Deontay clocked him with a right to the head in round nine. The punch from Wilder knocked Szpilka unconscious for a short period. Perhaps if Szpilka didn’t attempt to throw the left hand, he would have been better off. The southpaw Szpilka was having some success using his right hand jab in the last couple of rounds until being knocked out by Wilder in the ninth.
“I broke my hand,” Szpilka said to ringpolskapl. [Alexander] Povetkin will kill him.”
Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) is Wilder’s #1 WBC ranked mandatory challenger, and he’s expected to face Wilder next unless he faces one of the other heavyweight champions like IBO/WBA/WBO champion Tyson Fury or IBF champion Charles Martin in his next fight. It’s not too likely Wilder will get either of those guys for his next fight, so it’s probably going to be Povetkin.
It’ll be a good match for Wilder, as the 6’2” Povetkin has a nice four-fight winning streak going for him since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2013. Povetkin was knocked down four times in his loss to Wladimir. He was dropped once in the 2nd and three times in the 7th. The judges scored the fight 119-104, 119-104 and 119-104 in favor or Wladimir. Those are obviously one-sided scores, and that fight showed pretty clearly that the 6’2” Povetkin was just too short for the 6’6” Wladimir.
The height difference was simply too much for Povetkin to deal with. It looked like a fight between a heavy cruiserweight against a big heavyweight. Povetkin did not belong in the ring against Wladimir. I suspect that we will find the same thing happening when Povetkin gets inside the ring with the even bigger 6’7” Wilder, who is even taller than Wladimir. Wilder will be sporting a five inch height advantage and a six-inch reach advantage over Povetkin.
I want to thank @szpilka_artur a great fight last night. You got a great heart bro. Keep on fighting…. pic.twitter.com/HPLS3neFmm
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) January 17, 2016
I see Deontay having a much easier time beating Povetkin than he did against the constantly moving Szpilka. Povetkin fights out of the orthodox stance, and he’s terrible at moving around the ring. Povetkin up there in age at 36, and he couldn’t move around the ring like Szpilka if he wanted to. Povetkin is too heavy bodied to move much. As such, Deontay will have no problems bouncing his right hands off of Povetkin’s chin and putting him on the canvas over and over again until the fight is eventually halted because of it turning into a comical farce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMfsOVetDrY
“After Deontay hit me, I was out for like 45 seconds and I don’t remember the last couple of rounds before this KO,” Szpilka said via Fightnews.com. “Respect to Wilder – I didn’t expect him to counter-punch me. Now I’ll fly to Poland for my right hand surgery, and when I’m completely healthy, try my chances fighting for the IBF belt.”
I think it goes without saying that Szpilka has a much better chance of beating newly crowned IBF champion Charles Martin than he does in beating Deontay in a rematch. I would not recommend Szpilka facing Wilder again anytime soon if ever. Unfortunately, for Szpilka, he probably won’t get a chance to fight Martin before he loses his IBF title against one of the contender in the division or in a unification fight.
Martin is too vulnerable and flawed for him to hold onto his IBF title for any length of time in my view. To be sure, I think Martin will be fine as long as he’s taking voluntary defenses of his IBF title against bottom feeders in the division, but once he gets inside the ring with a talented contender or one of the other champions, I see him losing. Champions Deontay, Ruslan Chagaev and Tyson Fury all beat Martin in my view.
Szpilka did not fight that badly against Wilder last Saturday night. If Szpilka had remained disciplined and not gotten so greedy in the ninth round, he would have had a chance to win the fight. Szpilka just needed to continue boxing Wilder, because he was having more success when he was on the outside jabbing than when he was putting pressure on Wilder and walking into shots.
You have to wonder whether the KO that Szpilka suffered will have any lingering effects in the future in terms of him losing his punch resistance. When you see a fighter knocked out the way that Szpilka was, sometimes they suffer additional knockouts on a frequent basis. It might be a good idea for Szpilka to take a year off from the sport to rest up, or at least take on three or four third tier fodder opponents to get some easy wins and make sure that he can still handle a punch without getting knocked out again.
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