Deontay Wilder to fight on January 16th at Barclays Center, in NY

By Boxing News - 11/05/2015 - Comments

DEONTAY WILDER-MEDIA WORKOUT-9831By Scott Gilfoid: With No.1 WBC contender Alexander Povetkin saying to the WBC that he won’t be ready to fight in January, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) will be fighting on January 16th against an opponent still to be determined at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Wilder will be fighting the highest ranked WBC contender they can get, according to his trainer Jay Deas. This means that Wilder’s next fight will be against one of these lucky contenders:

2. Anthony Joshua
3. Vyacheslav Glazkov
4. Bermane Stiverne
5. Bryant Jennings
6. Lucas Browne
7. Artur Szpilka
8. Carlos Takam
9. Tony Thompson
10. Erkan Teper
11. Mariusz Wach
12. Chris Arreola
13. Andy Ruiz
14. Joseph Parker
15. Kyotaro Fujimoto

You can scratch off Jennings, Wach, Joshua, Thompson, and Teper from the list because they either have a fight close to that date or they were, in the case of Thompson, recently beaten.

“We’re trying to go for the highest-ranked, best-available guy. We were thinking that it would be Povetkin. We were ready. They’re the ones that postponed it, not us,” Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas said via al.com. “When they’re [Alexander Povetkin] ready, we’ll be ready,” said Deas. “So we’re not going to wait on anybody.”

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The World Boxing Council approved Wilder for a voluntary defense after learning that the 36-year-old Povetkin won’t be ready to fight in January. He suffered a cut over his left eye in his 12th round knockout win over Mariusz Wach last Wednesday, and it’s just not feasible for that cut to be healed by January 16th. It would take nothing short of a miracle for that cut to be healed by then.

Lucas Browne and Chris Arreola likely won’t agree to a fight against Deontay. Browne is waiting on a title shot against WBA “regular” champion Ruslan Chagaev, and I just don’t think Arreola will be interested in getting into the ring with a monster puncher like Wilder. That leaves only these fighters for Wilder and his adviser Al Haymon to choose from for his next fight:

3. Vyacheslav Glazkov
4. Bermane Stiverne
7. Artur Szpilka
8. Carlos Takam
13. Andy Ruiz
14. Joseph Parker
15. Kyotaro Fujimoto

You can further narrow that down by removing Parker and Stiverne from the list because Wilder recently beat Stiverne earlier this year, and Parker is still more of a prospect than a contender at this early point in his career.

You can remove Andy Ruiz from the list because I don’t think Haymon will give the green light to let Wilder fight the Top Rank promoted Ruiz.

Here’s the real list of who Wilder could fight in my view:

3. Vyacheslav Glazkov
7. Artur Szpilka
8. Carlos Takam
15. Kyotaro Fujimoto

Takam and Fujimoto are nothing like Povetkin, so they get removed from the list. Wilder is going to want someone who will get him ready for the Povetkin. For that reason, I see the list narrowed down to these two fighters:

3. Vyacheslav Glazkov
7. Artur Szpilka

Of those two, I see Szpilka getting the fight because he’s a fighter more fitting for a voluntary defense, and he still fights enough like Povetkin for the fight to still be beneficial for Wilder.

Hopefully once Wilder gets done with his next fight, Povetkin will be healed up enough to take the fight. It would be a pity if Wilder needs to take a fourth consecutive voluntary defense due to Povetkin still licking his wounds from his fight against Wach.



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