Deontay Wilder vs. Artur Szpilka possible for January 16th

By Boxing News - 12/03/2015 - Comments

1-Screen Shot 2015-09-26 at 10.53.09 PMBy Scott Gilfoid: With Vyacheslav Glazkov opting to go in another direction to go after the IBF title, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) could wind up facing #8 WBC Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) on January 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

You can say that the 26-year-old Szpilka and Glazkov are both about the same in terms of talent, so it’s not a big deal of Wilder ends up facing Szpilka rather than Glazkov. I see Szpilka as having the better punching power than Glazkov, but not the same chin.

Wilder can’t go wrong fighting Szpilka rather than Glazkov because he works just as good in getting him prepared for his mandatory defense against #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin in early 2016.

“With Glazkov electing not to take Wilder offer for Jan. 16 one possible opponent I’ve heard is Poland’s Artur Szpilka. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.

Szpilka’s only defeat of his career was a 10th round knockout loss to Bryant Jennings in January 2014. Szpilka fought a good fight for the most part, but it was Jennings’ combination punching that ultimately did him in.

Szpilka’s bounced back from the loss to Jennings in fine form in beating former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek by a surprise 10 round unanimous decision victory last November. Szpilka has won his last three fights since his loss to Jennings last year. In his last fight, Szpilka defeated Yasmany Consuegra by a 2nd round stoppage last August. Before that, Szpilka beat Manuel Quezada by a 3rd round stoppage last June.

I rate Szpilka as a slightly better puncher than Povetkin, and I see him being the perfect opponent to get Wilder ready for the Russian fighter. Granted, Szpilka isn’t ranked as high as Glazkov in the WBC’s rankings, but he’s still a very fine opponent to get him ready for what he’ll be dealing with when he gets in the ring with Povetkin.

Szpilka is known for his slugging style of fighting, which will be perfect for Wilder because he loves facing guys that come straight at him.

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Deontay wants to fight once more before facing Povetkin in 2016. He wouldn’t have wanted to do this if not for Povetkin recently fighting Mariusz Wach last month. Deontay has been out of the ring since his fight with Johann Duhaupas last September, and he wanted to be as busy as possible before he fought Povetkin. You can understand it from Wilder’s perspective. He doesn’t want to be out of the ring for a long spell before he faces Povetkin.

Deontay wants to get past his next fight in January and his fight against Povetkin in order to face new IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a unification fight. While the two fighters will likely face each other at some point, it might not be for all of those titles. Fury has to face Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch in early 2016, and the the chances of Fury beating him again are rather remote in my view. Deontay would obviously still give Fury a chance at fighting for his title, but it wouldn’t be a unification fight obviously.



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