By Jason Kim: 2008 U.S. Olympic Bronze Medalist Deontay Wilder (4-0, 4 KOs) kept his perfect record of knockouts intact with a 1st round knockout against a badly over-matched Joseph Rabotte (3-6, 1 KOs) in a scheduled four-round bout at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois. The 6’7” Wilder dropped Rabotte three times in the bout, and after the 3rd knockdown – a crushing right hand that left Rabotte collapsed in the corner – the fight was stopped by referee Celestino Ruiz at 2:33 of the round. Wilder, 23, looked very powerful, at least with his right hand.
Seconds into the 1st round, while backed up against the ropes, Wilder threw a short right hand that dropped Rabotte. It was surprising how much power that Wilder was able to get into the punch, because usually taller fighters like him need to get more distance in order to land shots as hard as Wilder did. However, it showed the kind of power that Wilder possesses.
Rabotte, who has a close resemblance to unbeaten heavyweight contender Chris Arreola, showed a good chin by getting up after that punch because a lot of heavyweights would have been too hurt to continue fighting. I doubt that he expected the long armed Wilder to be able to generate that kind of power from such a short range.
Prior to the knockdown, Rabotte had been attacking Wilder with hard body shots and was backing him up around the ring with short bursts to the body. I thought Rabotte didn’t look like that bad of a fighter, and certainly not the type of fighter that had a 3-5 record. The body punches he was landing against Wilder were thrown with a lot of power and better than a lot of heavyweights are capable of.
After the knockdown, Wilder went after Rabotte, hitting him with another right hand and then shoving him. Rabotte complained to the referee, but he didn’t appear too interested in hearing his complaint. Rabotte was no longer punching, just backing up continuously and trying to avoid Wilder’s big shots. Wilder seemed like he wanted to take Rabotte’s head off with every swing.
Given his short amateur career and his raw, rather crude boxing skills, I would think that Wilder would be wise enough to try and get some rounds in so that he could learn something. However, Wilder was heat hunting in the worst way, and pretty much throwing nothing but right hand bombs.
He didn’t bother with jabs or any kind of left hands. He was entirely focused on throwing nothing but right hands. I wish this was a one-time thing, but unfortunately, Wilder seems to fight this way all the time. His left hand is almost forgotten as he throws nothing but right hands. With a right hand as good as Wilder has, I guess I can’t blame him for putting all his emphasis on that one particular punch.
Loading up with big windmill shots, the clumsy looking Wilder landed a short left hook while throwing a flurry of shots, and knocked Rabotte down for a second time. This time after Rabotte got up, Wilder flailed away at Rabotte, hitting him with awkward looking punches.
Throwing nothing but right hands, Wilder backed Rabotte into the corner and then staggered him with a big right hand. He then followed up with another crushing right that sent Rabotte down in the corner on his backside, with his left leg buckled underneath him. Referee Celestino Ruiz then stopped the bout at 2:33 of the round. The badly hurt Rabotte stayed down for a long time after the knockdown, his right swollen underneath.
Wilder’s right hand may be even better than the Klitschko brothers and David Haye, three of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division. In my estimation, Wilder has a better right hand than all three of them. However, it’s too bad that he rarely uses his left hand, because it’s unclear how far Wilder can go with only one weapon in the toolbox.
A heavyweight needs at least a couple to fall back and a good jab. In Wilder’s case, he only has the right hand and nothing else.
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