By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight KO artist Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) will be taking the next step in his promising career with a scheduled 10 round bout against former WBO heavyweight champion Siarhei Liakhovich (25-5, 16 KO’s) on August 9th at a still to be determined venue in the United States.
There had been talk previously that the fight would be staged in Alabama, but that’s still not a certainty at this point. According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, the fight could take place at the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, California. Alabama also remains as possibility.
This is a good test for the 27-year-old Wilder because the 37-year-old Liakhovich can really punch and he’ll give him the best test of his career thus far.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said to Rafael at ESPN “This is a great test getting in the ring with an experienced fighter. [Liakhovich] is a former champion and he has a lot of experience. He’s clearly the most experienced fighter Deontay will have fought, but we feel he’s ready.”
I agree with Schaefer. Deontay is more than ready for this excellent test, and I see him knocking Liakhovich out cold in 3 or 4 rounds, possibly earlier. Liakhovich has a really good chin, so this fight could take Deontay a little longer than some of his other fights.
It doesn’t mean that Liakhovich isn’t a good fighter because he’s very good when he’s on and firing on all cylinders. Liakhovich would give a lot of the current heavyweight contenders a lot of problems. I could see him beating the likes of Tyson Fury, Steve Cunningham and David Price right now.
Golden Boy needs to start putting Deontay in with better opposition because they don’t want to waste his huge potential by keeping him in with 3rd tier fighters for too long because he’s knocking everyone out and not getting a lot from the fights. He needs 1st tier guys for him to continue to improve and get to the next level to challenge the Klitschko brothers.
Deontay looked great in his last fight in beating Audley Harrison by a 1st round TKO, but that fight should have taken place earlier in Deontay’s career because he’s too advanced at this point for him to be fighting the likes of Audley.
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