By Scott Gilfoid: #8 WBC Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) has been sparring with former world title challenger Eric Molina (24-3, 18 KOs) to get ready for a title shot of his own against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) on January 16th from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Molina, 33, was stopped in the 9th round by Deontay last year in June in a fight that took place in Birmingham, Alabama. Molina had his moments in the fight in twice stunning Wilder with big shots. However, Wilder took over the fight completely by the 6th round and never looked back.
Molina should have taken advantage of the fact that Wilder rarely used his right hand in the fight due to him coming off of a fractured hand in his previous fight against Bermane Stiverne in January of this year. Molina fought too timidly, and was unable to take advantage of the one-armed Wilder.
“I have had some really good sparring with Molina. Both of our trainers are impressed by what I can do and they tell me that if I box in the same way [when I face Wilder] as I’m doing in training – I should overcome Wilder,” Szpilka said via skysports.com.