By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten American talent heavyweight Deontay Wilder (15-0, 15 KO’s) will be looking for his 16th straight knockout tonight in his six-round bout against the tough Reggie Pena (6-6, 1 KO’s) at the Fantasy Springs Casino, in Indio, California. Wilder, only 25, has amazing power in his right hand and is still trying to develop his left to make it as much of a weapon.
The 6’7″ Wilder captured a bronze medal for the United States in the 2008 Olympics despite only having little more than 30 amateur fights on his resume at the time. Wilder’s story is similar to George Foreman, who captured a gold medal in the Olympics without much of any amateur background.
Wilder is still a long range prospect because he’s got to work on his defense and his left hand before he can get to the next level. However, right now I would favor Wilder over most heavyweights in the division, including most of the heavyweights from the UK. With his tremendous right hand power, I could see Wilder knocking out cold UK fighters like Dereck Chisora, Tyson Fury, David Price and Tom Dallas. Wilder simply has too much power for those guys and it would be brutal to see Wilder, with his one-punch power, connecting on the chin of these guys. Those are decent heavyweights but none of them has the cannon in their right hands that Wilder has. He would demo guys once he landed one of his right hand bombs. It wouldn’t be pretty. Just picture one of those highlight reels where a fighter drops like a rock after getting tagged with a right hand.
The only heavyweight I think could beat Wilder right now is WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, but that’s only because Wilder would be facing him without any kind of jab to speak of. Once Wilder develops a jab, I can see him beating Haye. But right now, I would still give Wilder a puncher’s chance of knocking out Haye. Wilder hits a lot harder than Carl Thompson and other fighter that Haye has fought before. Haye would be okay as long didn’t get hit with Wilder’s right hand. Haye’s only chance would be to try and knock Wilder out in the 1st round before Wilder got a chance to connect, because once Wilder connects with his right, the would likely be over.
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