By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated American heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) says he could be facing a really tough Russian heavyweight in his next fight on July 13th. The heavyweight is even tougher than his previously planned fight with Dereck Chisora.
Deontay said to boxingnews.com.ua “I still cannot say anything specific, because the contract is not signed yet, but on July 13, I’ll fight with an opponent who is much, much stronger than Chisora. This is a very tough guy…he’s from Russia. Everybody will be happy about this choice of opponent.”
Well, Deontay isn’t really giving up much of a hint by saying the heavyweight is better than Chisora because there’s quite a few heavyweights that are better than Chisora in the world rankings. Okay, let me take a stab at it since Deontay has been good enough to narrow it down to the fighter being Russia. It’s contender Magomed Abdusalamov, Denis Boytsov, Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko, Andriy Rudenko or Alexander Ustinov. If Deontay is serious about him saying that boxing fans will be happy with the choice of opponent, then I think you can rule out Chagav, Dimitrenko, Rudenko and Ustinov because I don’t boxing fans would be happy with Deontay fighting any of those guys.
That leaves Boytsov and Abdusalamov. I’d be very surprised if Golden Boy Promotions were to match Deontay against Abdusalamov because he can really punch and it would be a tough fight for Deontay unless he got to Abdusalamov. It would be have to be very early because Abdusalamov starts quickly and usually gets his knockouts early in his fights.
I can’t see the promoters for Boytsov to let him fight Deontay because he’s been matched so carefully his 9-year pro career that I can’t see them breaking from that pattern to let him fight a live body. It’s kind of sad how long Boytsov has gone without fighting one live body during his long career. It kind of reminds me of how Brian Nielson was matched up during his career.
Out of that whole bunch, I think the only fighter that boxing fans would be impressed with Deontay fighting is Abdusalamov, but I just don’t see Golden Boy letting Deontay fight a guy like him yet. That’s not to say that Abdusalamov isn’t flawed in the chin department because we saw Jameel McCline drop him in the 1st round last September.
Deontay hits a lot harder than McCline and if he were to tag Abdusalamov with his big power shots for three or four rounds, I see it being over quickly. But Deontay would have to realty unload on Abdusalamov from the very first round because the Russian heavyweight would come out smoking.
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