Weights: Wilder 228.5, Szpilka 233

By Boxing News - 01/15/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) was outweighed by 11 pounds by challenger Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) at Friday’s weigh-in for their fight on Showtime Championship Boxing this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Deontay weighed in at a slender 228.75lbs today in New York, and looked incredible at that weight. This is the same weigh that the 6’7” Deontay weighed in for his last fight against Johann Duhaupas last September. The fact that Deontay still weighs the same amount after four months tells you what kind of machine his body is at this point.

Szpilka weighed in at 233lbs, and that weight was right near the same weight he’s weighed in for his last two fights against Yasmany Consuegra and Manuel Quezada. Before those two fights, Szpilka’s weight was jumping all around from 223 to 234. It’s good that he’s finally stabilized at 231. It seems to be a good weight for him.

Szpilka was mouthing off a little bit during the face off with Deontay, saying “You’re going down. You’re going down.” Deontay merely shook his head and said “STILL heavyweight champion of the world.” Szpilka seemed to be working really hard trying to get into Deontay’s head, but he wasn’t having anything of it.

Deontay stayed calm and looked at him with smiling eyes, as if to say ‘you’re no threat to me, because you’re not even in my league.’ Szpilka was pretty worked up by the time the two of them moved away from the face off. I think Szpilka was hoping to get inside Deontay’s head somehow with his trash talking and his mean-looking stare, but it didn’t work.

Deontay is beyond intimidation tactics. They don’t work well with him. Szpilka might as well been staring at the wall, because he failed to get any reaction out of Deontay whatsoever other than amusement.

I think Deontay is happy that Szpilka is so confident going into their fight on Saturday night, because it’s going to make it all the more enjoyable for him to start throwing his bombs. In some of Wilder’s recent fights, he hasn’t had the same glee doing in because his opponents have looked timid and not done much trash talking. Szpilka is a completely different animal. He’s been talking trash and getting himself worked up to the point where he’s looked almost angry.

One thing I did notice about the Wilder-Szpilka face off was the fact that the two heavyweights stood far apart from each other rather than getting in close the way other fighters do. This is likely a product of their recent media event in Manhattan, New York this week. Szpilka rammed heads with Deontay when the two of them were up close jawing each other.

Deontay then responded by taking a right hand swipe at Szpilka’s face to knock him away. Szpilka looked thoroughly cowed by the experience, and he didn’t try to get close to Deontay after that.

In other weights on the card, Vyacheslav “Czar” Glazkov (21-0-1, 13 KOs) weighed in at only 218lbs for his fight against Charles Martin (22-0-1, 20 KOs). The two fighters will be battling for the vacant IBF heavyweight title that was recently stripped from champion Tyson Fury. Martin weighed in at 249lbs, and will enjoy a huge 31-pound weight advantage in the fight.

Along with the big weight advantage, the 6’5” Martin will also enjoy a two inch height and a five inch reach advantage over the 6’3” Glazkov. That’s going to make it really tough on the Ukrainian, because he’s going to be giving away so much in the same and reach department. Glazkov isn’t a big puncher, and he arguably should already have three defeats on his resume from his fights against Malik Scott, Derric Rossy and Steve Cunningham.

I had Glazkov losing all three of those fights. He looked terrible, and it’s difficult to understand what the judges were thinking when they scored those fights. All I know is Glazkov can’t continue to get controversial decisions for his entire career. Eventually, he’s going to need to win a fight without controversy because it’s going to look bad if that’s all he ever does is win questionable decisions that boxing fans don’t agree with.

DiBella Entertainment is the promoter for the event.



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