Deontay Wilder could be out of the ring for a while with injuries

By Boxing News - 07/17/2016 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder could be out of the ring for a while with injuries

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) suffered two injuries to his right arm last night in registering his impressive 36th knockout in his pro career in stopping Chris Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) in the 8th round. Wilder’s right hand is said to be broken, and he has a biceps injury to the same arm.

The injuries could keep the talented 6’7” Wilder out of the ring for some time. It’s going to be up to the World Boxing Council to decide whether they want to change Wilder’s status as the WBC champion to the old “Champion in Recess’ label so that it can free up the WBC belt so that other contenders can fight for the belt while Wilder slowly heals from his various injuries.

If the WBC does make that move then we could potentially see #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin face #2 WBC Bermane Stiverne for the vacant WBC belt. I would have to favor the 37-year-old Stiverne in that fight if it comes off. It’ll be up to the WBC to make the decision whether to allow Povetkin to fight for the WBC title.

“Wilder will be taken to a local hospital tonight, and will be seeing a specialist this week to assess the damage to his right hand and right bicep muscle,” said Wilder’s promoter Lou DiBella via Fight News.

The hand injury that Wilder suffered, which is his third he’s suffered as a pro, would be bad enough to keep him on the shelf for a considerable amount of time. But when you add in a bicep injury, we could be talking about a long, long time before Wilder is able to come back from these two injuries. That’s bad for Wilder and for the other heavyweight champions who might want to fight him in a unification match.

“It was early – the third or the fourth round,” said Wilder. “It was from an (awkward) punch. I hurt the hand first, and then the bicep…look at my hand, this thing hurts!”

This is terrible news for boxing fans because those injuries sound like they’re going to keep the 30-year-old Wilder out of action. Many of the fans were looking forward to seeing Wilder defend his title against Povetkin, and then take on the likes of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. While those fights will still likely happen in the future, we’re probably not going to be seeing them happen until well into 2017 if then.