By Allan Fox: Top Rank boss Bob Arum believes that Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder is still dangerous for any heavyweight in the division and isn’t done following his loss to WBC champion Tyson Fury on October 9th.
Arum thinks the former WBC champion Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) has at least a couple of good years left in him. Wilder just turned 36-years-old on Friday, and he’s going through a tough two-year drought in terms of wins.
Arum says that Wilder’s punching power will always make him a threat against his opposition, but he’s not saying who he believes he can be counted on to defeat at this point.
Wilder’s problem is he’s fought Fury three times in the last three years, and he’s had significant difficulties against him.
Fury’s size and boxing skills were too much for Wilder, and he probably should have steered clear of him after their first fight in 2018.
For Wilder to get another world title shot, he will need to beat at least one top ten level heavyweight, preferably a top-five guy.
These would be excellent options to get Wilder a title shot:
- Andy Ruiz Jr.
- Filip Hrgovic
- Joseph Parker
- Frank Sanchez
- Daniel Dubois
- Joe Joyce
- Tony Yoka
- Michael Hunter
Wilder has a couple of years left
“I think Deontay Wilder is a tough out for anybody he fights because nobody in heavyweight boxing hits harder than Devontay Wilder,” said Bob Arum to Blue Blood Sports TV.
“It’s like he takes a gun with him into the ring, and he can fire that gun at any time. If you’re standing in the way, you’re going to get knocked down or knocked out,” said Arum.
“Wilder has a couple of years at least ahead of him. That may very well be,” Arum said when told that Tyson Fury might be the only fighter in the heavyweight division that can beat Wilder,” said Arum.
Arum is not sure if Errol Spence can come back
“What I don’t know is there are detached retains and detached retinas,” Arum said when asked if IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. will be able to come back from his eye injury.
“Is it completely detached? is it partially detached? I’m not a doctor, but I was involved when [Sugar] Ray [Leonard] had a detached retina, and they reattached it, and it was stronger than it was before. He went through that.
“Ray’s, as I remember, his detached retina was partially detached. I don’t know what the story is with Spence, and I’m certainly not a doctor.
“It depends on how bad the detachment was as to win or if Spence can come back. You’re absolutely right. Medical science has improved the chances because when Ray got his detachment, the conventional wisdom was the fighter can never come back from a detached retina,” Arum said.
There is a genuine possibility that Errol Spence Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs) might not be able to come back from his torn retina. I mean, he wouldn’t be the first great fighter whose career was cut short by this type of eye injury.
In Spence’s case, it’s not just his eye injury that has impacted his career and eroded his skills. The car crash that Spence was involved in two years ago in 2019 appears to have taken a lot out of him.
In Spence’s only fight since the car crash against Danny Garcia last December, he looked nothing like the fighter that he’d once been.
It’s now been ten months since Spence fought, and by the time he does return to the ring in 2022, he’ll have been out of the ring for well over a year.
There’s talk of Spence fighting in February of next year, but that month sounds overly ambitious.
It’s doubtful that Spence will return that quickly from the eye injury he suffered during his training camp for his canceled fight with Manny Pacquiao last August, and it’s more likely that we won’t see Spence return to the ring until April or May of 2022 if then.
When Spence does come back, he’s going to need to be careful about who he faces.
If Errol jumps straight into a dangerous fight against the likes of Terence Crawford, Shawn Porter, Virgil Ortiz Jr, or Jaron Ennis, he’ll be asking for trouble.
There’s talk of Spence defending against his IBF mandatory Kudratillo Abdukakhorov when he does return to the ring. This would be a far safer fight for Errol than taking on one of the talented contenders or champions in the division.
Fury raves about Jared Anderson
“There’s a guy that was on that [December 9th Fury vs. Wilder 3] card that only has ten professional fights, and Tyson tells me he will be the next heavyweight champion after him, and that’s Jared Anderson. He was his chief sparring partner for the last two Wilder-Fury.
“Anderson is a kid from Toledo, Ohio. A good-looking boy. He’s about 6’3”, a young 21, and he’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Muhammad Ali. That is correct,” said Arum when asked if Jared Anderson will be fighting on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter on November 20th.
“An undefeated Russian that has 3o fights,” Arum said about Anderson’s next fight.
“Frank Sanchez is a good, clever fighter. I think he’s under contract to PBC, and he’s a very, very skilled good fighter.
The unbeaten heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs) thus far is looking quite good with the way he’s been bowling over his opposition, but we won’t know if he’s going to pan out for some time.
Top Rank is still matching the 21-year-old Anderson against lower-level opposition at this early stage of his two-year professional career. Still, if the sparring rumors of him giving Tyson Fury problems in training camp, you have to believe he’ll be a significant player one day.
You have to believe the stories of Anderson giving Fury trouble have a grain of truth to them because they wouldn’t be so extensive if there weren’t some validity to them.
It’s understandable why Arum wouldn’t want to admit that Fury is having trouble with Anderson because this is his top guy.
The last thing Arum needs are other heavyweights studying Anderson’s game and emulating it to use as a blueprint to defeat Fury. It would only seem evident that Anderson’s high-volume combination punching style would be kryptonite for Fury.
The Gypsy King isn’t able to defend against a storm of shots in the same way he does against the single punches coming from fighters like Deontay.
Likely, we won’t see Anderson put in with the dangerous guys until the current elite heavyweights, Fury, Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, and Dillian Whyte, are either retired or over-the-hill.
Anderson is being matched in the same way that Edgar Berlanga is at super middleweight. Berlanga is with Top Rank as well, and they recently gave him a step-up opponent, and he didn’t perform well.
In Anderson’s recent fights, he’s obliterated these fighters:
- Vladimir Tereshkin
- Jeremiah Karpency
- Kingsley Ibeh
- Luis Eduardo Pena
The opposition is too poor to judge how good Anderson is, but he looks great in destroying these guys.
