By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs) will be looking to burn the “Reptile” Johann Duhaupas (32-2, 20 KOs) this Saturday night in their primetime televised fight on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC at jam packed Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Start time: 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT.
This is going to be a fight that is going to be seen by a huge amount of boxing fans. Why? The Wilder-Duhaupas fight will be televised during primetime by NBC, which means a huge amount of casual fans of the sport will be able to watch it. NBC is one of the most popular free channels, and you can expect that the Wilder vs. Duhaupas will end up being a highly watched affair.
Let’s be real about this; fans will be watching it anyway because of the 6’7” Deontay’s tremendous fan base in America. But with the fight being on NBC, it’s going to wind up being seen by many more fans.
“I’m going to burn this reptile,” Wilder says about his opponent 32-year-old Duhaupas.
Wilder, 29, wants to score a quick knockout for this fight so that he can impress his fans in Birmingham. Duhaupas is seen by many fans as little more than the sacrificial lamb for Wilder to go and slaughter in front of his adoring boxing fans in Alabama.
That’s not to say that the 32-year-old French fighter Duhaupas doesn’t stand a chance in this fight, because he’s got enough pop in his punches to have an outside chance of winning. Further, Duhaupas has a massive amount of boxing skills that could give Wilder huge headaches if he doesn’t get him out of there.
I rate Duhaupas as one of the best pure boxers in the heavyweight division. What he doesn’t have is huge punching power. That’s the thing that is holding Duhaupas back right now. If he could develop some punching power that would put him on the same level as the late Corrie Sanders, then I think Wilder would be in a real tough scrap on Saturday. But Duhaupas only has moderate punching power, and that will make it difficult for him to trouble Wilder with his shots in this fight.
“He [Duhaupas ] was coming off the biggest win of anybody they gave us,” Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas said via al.com about Duhaupas’s win over Manuel Charr . “[Chris] Arreola was coming off a draw against an opponent (Fred Kassi in June) he should have won and that lost some of his luster. He’s [Duhaupas] a foreign guy so there’s some intrigue. He’s always in shape, so it’s a good matchup.”
Deas is correct about Duhaupas being a good opponent for Wilder. Duhaupas is the type of heavyweight that you don’t see too often. You could look around Europe and not find heavyweights as good Duhaupas. He’s got the whole package in terms of boxing skills. Against a fighter without the tremendous one-punch power that Wilder has, Duhaupas would be a serious threat to beating them.
I work hard to take care of @SophiaTheBelt… And it's almost time to bring home the bacon! 6 days til fight night!! pic.twitter.com/eyYuhDDbAC
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) September 20, 2015
Broadcaster Marv Albert will be working the Wilder-Duhaupas fight on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. It’ll be nice to have a broadcaster as experienced as Albert working the fight. Albert’s an old timer in this fieldand has been around many years. He’ll make it exciting with his description of the events.
If Wilder can get past Duhaupas, he’ll need to start negotiations for a fight against his #1 mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin for a fight next year. That fight will take place in the first quarter of 2016 unless the winner of the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury decides they want to fight him.
The World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman said recently that he won’t stand in the way of Klitschko vs. Wilder unification fight. He’ll let that fight take place next if both fighters want to face each other. Povetkin would then need to wait another five or six months until the smoke clears from the Wilder vs. Klitschko fight. But we don’t know if Wladimir will want to face Wilder next or not.
If Wilder looks really impressive in dispatching Duhaupas on Saturday night, he might in effect scare Wladimir off and shoot himself in the foot. That’s why it might be in Wilder’s best interest not to look so sensational in beating Duhaupas. If Deontay can beat him but looked flawed in doing so, then I think Wladimir will show interest in fighting him.
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