By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) weighed in today for his fight this Saturday night against challenger Eric Molina (23-2, 17 KOs) at the Bartow Arena, in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. The talented Deontay came in at 10 pounds heavier than his last fight in coming in at 229 pounds.
Wilder looked big, powerful and very intimidating, especially during the face-off when he stared Molina down and had him angry and trash talking after Wilder invaded his personal space by getting really close. Molina looked like he wanted to get froggish with Deontay, and he had to be dragged away by his people. Wilder didn’t even flinch when Molina was blowing his top. Wilder just stood there without showing any emotions, and just staring holes through Molina. You could tell who the more confident fighter was of the two. Wilder was totally confident of winning the fight.
For his part, 33-year-old Molina weighed at a slightly flabby 239.25 pounds. Molina looked like he was carrying around at least 20 pounds of excess fat on his frame that he should have taken off. In terms of actual muscle, Wilder looked to be by far the more muscular guy.
Wilder’s weight of 229 pounds could be an indication that he may start bulking up the way that Britain’s Anthony Joshua has been doing. We’ve seen Joshua go from 230 pounds up to close to 250 in just a little over a year. It’s really difficult to put lean muscle of that amount in a short period of time, but Joshua has done it. If Deontay can put on another 10 to 15 pounds on his frame, it’s going to make him really difficult to move around the ring.
Having extra weight definitely helps in terms of keeping your opponent from bumping and shoving you around the ring.
Molina seemed to lose his cool when Wilder got close to him during the stare down. I mean, Wilder was staring holes through Molina, and had him looking unnerved at first. But after a while, Molina seemed to snap, and start barking at Wilder. I’m not sure if it was because Wilder was crowding him extra close or if Wilder said something to him when they were close.
Whatever the case, Molina looked hopping mad towards the end of the stare down, and he had to be pulled away from Wilder. Molina didn’t look like he was going to resort to violence or anything like that. I think it would have ended badly for Molina if he started throwing down right there because the 6’7” Wilder was literally towering over him, even though Molina was only two inches shorter than him at 6’5”.
It’s going to be interesting to see how much stronger Wilder is at 229 for this fight from the 219 that he weighed in his last contest against Bermane Stiverne last January. Wilder looked too light for that fight, so it’s good that he’s put weight on and is getting close to 240.
Other weights on the card:
Jose Pedraza 129.75 vs. Andrey Klimov 129
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