By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night on Showtime Boxing, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) will be looking to bring some pain to the ring with his two powerful and healthy fists against the younger, shorter and less experienced Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Deontay wants to get back to his knockout ways in this fight after being denied a KO last year in his title fight against former WBC heavyweight champion Berman Stiverne. Wilder has knocked out his last two opponents Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas, but Wilder wants one of his traditional stoppages in the past where just lays the guy out with a single right hand that leaves him badly hurt.
“I’m excited about the new year,” said the unbeaten 30-year-old, who claims he twice defended his title last year while still getting over a hand injury suffered in the Stiverne fight,” Wilder said via skysports.com. “I want this fight to be already the fight of the year, and this is just the beginning of the year. So that’s what excitement I’m trying to bring to this fight. I’m trying to bring a severe knockout,” Deontay said.
Gosh, Deontay sounds scary with the way he’s talking. I think he really wants to smash Szpilka in this fight. I sure hope for Szpilka’s sake he brings his A-game and a good chin with him on Saturday night, because he’s going to need them if he wants to get the victory. I mean, Szpilka has a chance of winning the fight, but he’s going to need to get to the talented 6’7” Deontay before he lays the lumber on him in this fight.
Szpilka doesn’t have the greatest chin in the heavyweight division, unfortunately. We saw Szpilka get knocked out already by Bryant Jennings in 2014, an American fighter not known for being a big puncher. The fact that Jennings was able to KO Szpilka isn’t a good thing.
It suggests that Szpilka might not last long against Deontay if he starts getting hit early. Picture what happened to Malik Scott when he fought Deontay in March 2014. Wilder left Malik on the canvas dazed and confused in stopping him in the 1st round to become the WBC mandatory challenger.
“I want to get back to my knockout days. My hands were still out all this time; last year my hand was about 85 per cent when I defended my title,” Deontay said. “Now it’s looking back, strong as ever. It’s back to 100 per cent, and I’m looking to go back to where I used to be – four rounds or under.”
.@szpilka_artur, aka Pinhead, hope you're ready to step into the ring with the #BombZquad on 1/16. #WilderSzpilka pic.twitter.com/3UIOPaMU9c
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) January 11, 2016
Deontay, 30, will need to make sure that he knocks Szpilka out because the Polish fighter hits too hard for him to let him hang around for the full fight. I dare to say that if Szpilka is still in the fight by the 9th round, Deontay could be in for some trouble. You don’t want to leave a big puncher like Szpilka around for too long because it gives him too many chances to change the course of the bout with his heavy hands.
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