Deontay Wilder will require two surgeries

By Boxing News - 07/17/2016 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder will require two surgeries

By Jeff Aranow: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s eighth round stoppage win over Chris Arreola last Saturday was a costly one for the Bronze Bomber, as he suffered a torn right biceps and a broken hand in the fight. Both injuries will require surgeries to repair the problems.

Wilder will need two surgeries after the victory. According to Wilder’s co-manager Jay Deas, he’ll have surgery on his broken right hand first. This is the same hand that Wilder had surgery on last year after breaking it in his 12 round decision win over Bermane Stiverne in January 2015.

It’s believed that Wilder suffered both injuries in the 4th round against Arreola after knocking him down with some big shots. Wilder was throwing shots awkwardly with his right hand and not using the greatest form. Wilder had Arreola in serious trouble in that round, but he was unable to finish him off despite trying third to get him out of there.

“They’re still doing some of that, still assessing the situation, but it looks like he’ll have two surgeries,” said Deas to the tuscaloosanews. “One surgery on his hand and one on his bicep. The hand surgery will probably be first.”

The hand surgery will be followed by the biceps surgery, and that’s the one that could take some time for Wilder to come back from. For a torn biceps, it can take up to six months to come back from that kind of injury. It depends on whether it was a full or partial tear of his biceps. Six months would keep Wilder out of action for the remainder of 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6sP9NwaFrI

When he does come back in 2017, there’s no telling whether he’ll continue to suffer hand injuries to his right hand. Wilder is going to need to learn how to throw his right hand properly if he wants avoid this being a chronic thing. He broke his hand in 2015 and now 2016. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Wilder break his hand again next year.

“Deontay hits too hard to be a human being,” Deas said. “He’s got the genetic build of a basketball player. The bones are a little smaller. Most of the heavyweights at this level are big, thick guys with really large bone structure. He hits too hard for his bone structure.”

Wilder doesn’t appear to hit any harder than guys like Anthony Joshua and David Haye. The only difference is that Wilder doesn’t have the strong thick bones those fighters have. He also doesn’t throw his shots straight like they do. Many of Wilder’s punches are thrown with him wind-milling in a clubbing fashion. Wilder will need to learn how to throw punches properly to avoid hurting his hand again. He’s got to learn how to keep his wrist straight when throwing his punches because he’s frequently throwing his shots in a wild manner.