By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronzebomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) put together a nice little Christmas greetings today to his next opponent Artur “Szpila The Pin” Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) ahead of their fight next month on January 16th on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wilder, 6’7”, wanted to wish Szpilka a nice little “seasons beating” for their fight. Out of the kindness of Wilder’s heart, he offered up a kind greeting to the 26-year-old Szpilka.
Szpilka is going to need a ton of luck for this fight because he’s facing what many boxing fans see as the best heavyweight on the planet now. Wladimir Klitschko got old, got beat, and is now likely to be sent into retirement by the light hitting Tyson Fury in early 2016.
With Only Deontay, Fury, and Ruslan Chagaev holding world titles at heavyweight, Deontay figures to be the best of the three by a considerable margin in the minds of many fans. Interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz (24-0, 21 KOs) doesn’t count in the equation because he’s still not a full champion, and he still hasn’t beaten anyone talented. I’m sorry, but I don’t count Bryant Jennings as being a talented fighter.
Szpilka met with defeat at the hands of Bryant Jennings last year in losing by a 10th round knockout. Jennings basically batted bald-headed Szpilka round the ring like a baseball in the fight before knocking him out in the 10th round.
The only reason Szpilka is getting the Wilder fight now is because Szpilka has won his last four fights over Yasmany Consuegra, Miguel Quezada, Ty Cobb and Tomasz Adamek. Granted, most of those names completely obscure cannon fodder type opposition, but Adamek was a fine scalp for Szpilka to add to his collection. There are not too many heavyweights in the division that could beat the 39-year-old Adamek, because he’s still about as good as ever was in his career.
Wilder, 30, is using the Szpilka fight to get ready for a much bigger fight against his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin that will take place in the first quarter. It’s still up in the air whether the WBC will force Wilder to take the fight with Povetkin first, or if they’ll allow him to bypass the fight to face the winner of the Klitschko vs. Fury fight.
.@BronzeBomber has a special #Christmas gift in mind for @szpilka_artur on 1/16. #WilderSzpilka #Boxing #KO
https://t.co/1xMKXsTDOm
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) December 25, 2015
For the good of the sport, I think the WBC needs to allow Wilder to face the Fury-Klitschko winner without Wilder having to beat Povetkin first, because the negotiations and planning for the Wilder-Povetkin fight will likely eat up a good portion of 2016.
That would mean that we might not get a chance to see the winner of the Wilder vs. Povetkin fight face the winner of the Klitschko vs. Fury fight until 2017 at best. That’s obviously not good, because Wladimir is pushing 40-years-old. We can’t have him age any more than he already is if you want to make for an entertaining fight between Wilder and Klitschko.
Szpilka has good pop in his punches. He’s knocked out three out of his last four opponents, and he’s been looking real good lately. If Szpilka can raise his game a little, he could give Wilder a good test in this fight. However, Szpilka is going to need to fight a lot better than he did in his loss to Jennings, because Wilder would make easy work of Szpilka if he fights like he did in that bout.
Szpilka did too much plodding and was too slow to give Jennings any real problems in that fight. Never the less, that was a year ago when Szpilka was only 25-years-old, and he was younger and less experienced at that time. The wins that Szpilka has put under his belt since then has definitely helped him improve, and we may see a different fighter in the ring when he faces the talented Wilder in this fight.
Szpilka is going to need to figure out how to handle Wilder’s long reach and ability to move around the ring, because he’s not going to be able to slowly plod after him the way he’s done with his other 21 opponents in the past. Wilder would eat up a slow plodder like Szpilka if he doesn’t fight at a higher level than he did against Jennings.
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