By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between unbeaten American heavyweight Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) and former WBO heavyweight champion Siarhei Liakhovich (25-5, 16 KO’s) is a possibility, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
He’s saying that Wilder will most likely be facing the 37-year-old Liakhovich next. This makes sense because the 6’7” Deontay recently said he would be facing a well-known Russian fighter next, and Liakovich is from Belarus, which is right next to Russia. Liakovich now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Mannix said on his twitter: “I’m told Deontay Wilder is likely to return against Siarhei Liakhovich on SHOsports ShoBox card in Alabama. Date TBA.”
This is a fine opponent. Liakhovich looked really good in his last fight against Bryant Jennings last year in March before running out of gas and getting stopped in the 9th. Liakhovich also looked really good in his fight before that against Robert Helenius in August 2011 in another 9th round TKO defeat. He was giving Helenius all kinds of problems before getting tired and stopped in the 9th.
I think Liakhovich is still a really good heavyweight with excellent power and superb boxing skills. Liakhovich’s main problem is inactivity and stamina issues. He didn’t used to have stamina problems, but I think all the time off away from boxing has hurt him in the stamina department.
He may have lost his last two fights, but he’s still a very good fighter for 6-8 rounds, I give him that. If his fights were shorter than 10 rounds, I could see him being one of the top contenders in the heavyweight division right now.
Liakhovich captured the WBO heavyweight title over Lamon Brewster in April 2006 in one of the most exciting fights I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, Liakhovich lost his title in his first defense to Shannon Briggs in November 2006. After that fight, Liakhovich wouldn’t fight again until February 2008 when he was beaten by 7-foot Nikolay Valuev by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. Liakhovich didn’t look motivated in that fight. I think he could have beaten Valuev if he were as motivated as he was for the Brewster fight.
This is a good fight for Deontay because it’ll get him ready for someone like Steve Cunningham. That would be a good fight to take after Liakhovich because Cunningham has a little bit of pop, good skills, and the fight would show the difference between Deontay and Tyson Fury, the fighter that Cunningham was stopped by last April in a 7th round TKO defeat. If Deontay is able to destroy Cunningham with no problems, you could then assume that he’d do the same thing to Tyson Fury if given the chance.
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