By Scott Gilfoid: U.S boxing fans are going to be in for a real treat with the August 9th heavyweight match-up between Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) and Siarhei Liakhovich (25-5, 16 KO’s) being televised by Showtime from the Fantasy Springs Casino, in Indio, California, USA.
The Wilder-Liakhovich fight will be the main event on the card with light middleweight Jarmall Charlo facing Antwone Smith and lightweight Francisco Vargas facing Brandon Bennett in undercard fights.
This is a nice little card if I do say so myself. Some of these guys are heading for stardom in the near future. Deontay is a can’t miss future star, and Vargas and Charlo are going places as well.
Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya said this on his twitter last Wednesday when asked how long before the talented 6’7” Deontay fights for a world title for the first time in his career: “@Bronzebomber: very soon. Mark my words, he’s the real deal.”
If Deontay keeps destroying guys in the 1st round like he did his last opponent Audley Harrison last April, it’s definitely possible that we could see Deontay fighting for a world title by 2014 or 2015. The only thing that slows it down is that Deontay would likely have to be locked in as the mandatory challenger for one of the Klitschko brothers before they’d chose to fight him because neither of the Klitschko brothers are going to select a talent like Wilder for an optional title defense. That’s just not going to happen.
Wladimir and Vitali choose easy marks when they make their optional title defenses. We’ve seen that again and again over the years, and Deontay is not an easy mark. He’d be dangerous to either of the Klitschkos.
The Liakhovich fight should give us a good idea how far away Deontay is in his development from being ready to fight the Klitschkos. If he can wipe out a solid fighter like Liakhovich in one or two rounds, then he’s definitely ready to take the next step in his career.
Like I said, Deontay probably won’t get a title shot against the Klitschkos until he’s the mandatory challenger and one of them are on the verge of being stripped of their title unless they fight him.
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