By Jim Dower: In a show of his incredible punching power, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) ended a close fight by knocking out a highly motivated Artur Szpilka (20-2, 15 KOs) in round 9 tonight in a very tough fight for Deontay at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Before finally knocking Szpilka unconscious with a right hand to the head in the 9th, Deontay looked lost in the fight and uncoordinated. He did not look like a skilled fighter, and he was barely better than Szpilka, who came into the fight not highly rated.
The KO punch that Wilder landed in the 9th was thrown at the same time that Szpilka was throwing a left. He didn’t see Wilder’s punch and he was knocked unconcious from the shot, which landed to his jaw.
It was clearly the best punch that Deontay landed all night. He was missing much of the time, and looking awkward frequently. However, Wilder was able to land at least one or two good punches in all the rounds from the 4th on. That was the difference maker in the fight. Szpilka was landing at a higher pace, but they weren’t landing as cleanly as the one or two good shots that Deontay was connecting with in each round.
In the aftermath of the fight, Szpilka was taken out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital to be evaluated.
Szpilka was really shook up by the right hand that Wilder landed in the 9th round. It was a punch that Szpilka had no way of knowing was coming. It was one of those situations where he didn’t prepare properly for it. Szpilka had done a great job of taking away Wilder’s right hand through most of the fight with his movement. Wilder was limited to landing only one or two good right hands per round, and nothing more than that. Unfortunately for Szpilka, he was hit with Wilder’s best right hand of the night in the 9th, and there was no way he was going to be able to take that kind of a tremendous blow.
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Vyacheslav Glazkov (21-1-1, 13 KOs) suffered his first defeat of his career in losing by a third round TKO tonight after injuring his right knee in a fight against 6’5″ American Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) for the vacant IBF heavyweight title on Showtime Championship Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Glazkov’s right knee folded on his twice in the 3rd round, causing the fight to be stopped. Glazkov had fought well enough in the first two rounds to arguably win the rounds. Things changed in the third after his right foot slipped on the canvas causing him to fall down. A second slip on the canvas for Glazkov caused the fight be stopped. Glazkov got back up limping and he was asked if he wanted to continue, and he said no.
The win gives Martin the IBF heavyweight title, and with it, he is now in the position for some nice payday fights against the other heavyweight champions if he wishes. If not, then Martin can defend it against the IBF’s top 15 contenders.
In the first two rounds of the fight, Glaskov focused on throwing body shots, as they easier for him to land than trying to land head shots against the taller Martin. Glazkov seemed to be doing a little better job than Martin. Unfortunately for Glazkov, he suffered a knee injury in the third round, and that changed the outcome of the fight.
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Undefeated middleweight Maciej Sulecki (22-0, 7 KOs) kept his perfect record intact on Saturday night in pounding Derrick Findley (22-18-1, 14 KOs) into submission in scoring a 7th round stoppage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The fight was halted with Findley hurt in the 7th.
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Unbeaten middleweight John Vera (12-0, 7 KOs) defeated journeyman Pete Johnson (11-43-2, 4 KOs) by a four round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 40-32, 40-36 and 40-36.
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Welterweight prospect Amon Rashidi (2-0, 1 KOs) defeated Marquis Hawthorn (2-2_ by a 4 round unanimous decision. The final scores were 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.
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Other results on the card:
Jarvis Sheppard TKO 2 Nubian Houston
Julian Sosa TKO 2 Bryan Timmons
Carlos Gongora TKO 4 Derrick Adkins
Botirsher Obidov UD 4 Ramil Gadzhiev
Ivan Golub TKO 1 Juan Rodriguez Jr.
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