Deontay Wilder: Szpilka doesn’t have heart when it gets tough

By Boxing News - 12/09/2015 - Comments

DEONTAY WILDER-MEDIA WORKOUT-9831By Scott Gilfoid: BC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) finally has an opponent scheduled for his January 16tght fight next month in Brooklyn, New York. Wilder will be fighting the tough but limited Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) in a fight on Showtime.

Wilder sees Szpilka has a good fighter, but one who lacks heart when fights turn out to be grueling affairs where he needs to dig deep. The example of a fight where Wilder feels that Szpilka was unable to come up with the heart to win was his fight last year against Bryant Jennings.

Szpilka was knocked down with a body shot and a left hook to the head in a 10th round stoppage loss. Jennings isn’t known for being a big puncher, yet he was able to stand in the pocket and beat Szpilka at his own game by beating him into submission.

Szpilka is going to need to show a lot of heart to beat the 6’7” Wilder because he’s going to turn the fight into a war in order to impress the boxing fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

This is a fight that Wilder is using to get himself ready for his defense against Alexander Povetkin, and he needs to treat this title defense like a dry run to how he’s going to fight Povetkin. In other words, Deontay is going to going full bore the entire time looking to sweep Szpilka out of the ring like a heavy nuclear explosion. Wilder won’t be showing Szpilka any mercy despite him being just a voluntary challenger with a #8 ranking by the World Boxing Council.

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“I want to thank my opponent Artur Szpilka for accepting this opportunity that I’m giving him. I wish him luck – he’s going to need it. I look forward to winning over the Polish fans after I beat him,” Wilder said. “I know he’s a southpaw and he tends to give up when things get tough in the ring, going off the fight he had with Bryant Jennings. He doesn’t have heart when it gets tough. I look forward to giving the fans plenty of action and excitement on January 16.”

If I’m Szpilka, I’d lower my head and look to unload everything in my arsenal in the opening round because unless he earns Wilder’s respect right off the bat, I don’t see how he can last for more than a few one-sided rounds. The thing is Deontay likes to fight against guys that come right at him, so it’s going to be tough on Szpilka no matter what he does in this fight. But he at least has to give it a good college try before he gets blasted into oblivion by the powerful Deontay.

Szpilka has won his last four fights since his defeat to Jennings. He’s beaten Yasmany Consuegra, Manuel Quezada, Ty Cobb and Tomasz Adamek. The win over Adamek was a real surprise because a lot of boxing fans figured that Szpilka would lose that fight. It came directly after his loss to Jennings.



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