(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: According to the monstrously powerful WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs), his opponent Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) is in for a world of hurt on Saturday night when they face each other on Showtime Boxing. Deontay is amused that Szpilka has been flapping his gums lately about he’s going to win the fight and show the people how good he is, but Deontay feels that Szpilka is out of his class in their fight.
In other words, Szpilka is fighting WAY above his level in taking this fight with Deontay, and come Saturday night, Szpilka will be exposed in a major way in their clash at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“I’m mobile and agile. My accuracy and my power is the best out there. Artur Szpilka is in for a world of pain,” Deontay said.
Yes, it’s very true that Deontay is incredible at moving around the ring, and his punching is unquestionably among the best in division, if not the best. We’ve seen Szpilka have problems with non-punchers in the best in getting laid out on the canvas in fights against Mike Mollo and Bryant Jennings in back to back fights. To Szpilka’s credit, he got up off the deck in his fight against Mollo in the 3rd round and came back to score a 5th round knockout, but Szpilka was badly hurt in getting dropped in the 3rd.
If Szpilka had been knocked down like that against Deontay, then there would be no coming back from that. Deontay would finish him off. To be sure, Szpilka hasn’t been knocked down since his loss to Jennings in 2014, but he also hasn’t fought anyone that you can call a truly good heavyweight. I mean, Szpilka beat 39-year-old Tomasz Adamek in 2014 by a 10 round decision, but Adamek isn’t one of the major players in the heavyweight division. Adamek is just a pumped up aging former light heavyweight.
“Szpilka says he’s ready but he’s just trying to promote himself. I really mean what I say,” Deontay said. “We’re on a mission. Everything that has happened has been planned. Everything seems to happen at the right time in my career and my life. I was meant to do this. Boxing was my calling in life.”
It’s not surprising that Szpilka has been promoting himself in the public for this fight. It wouldn’t make sense for him to confess that he has next to no chance in this fight, and that the only way he can win is if he gets lucky and lands a homerun punch. However, I think that’s really the case in this fight. I don’t see Szpilka having any real chance in this fight, and that’s not because he’s not the greatest heavyweight in the division. It’s more so because he’s facing what could be the best fighter in the division in 6’7” Deontay.
#WilderSzpilka fight week! It will be the 1st heavyweight title fight in BK since 1900, Saturday at 10p ET/7p PT.
https://t.co/BSf388WNba
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) January 12, 2016
I think Szpilka is going to visit the canvas once or twice on Saturday night courtesy of one of Deontay’s sledgehammer right hands. Whether Szpilka will get up from those knockdowns is the major question. My guess is if/when Szpilka gets knocked down, he won’t be able to survive the storm of punches that are coming at him from all sides by Deontay.
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