Rating Deontay Wilder TnS Boxing Podcast #38 – This past Saturday night in Birmingham, Alabama WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder returned to action as he faced Gerald Washington in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions fight card that aired on CBS.
The CBS platform means that nearly 2 million viewers saw the fight where Wilder started slow before connecting on the punch that ended the fight in round five. Many are criticizing his performance, especially the frantic ending of the fight that saw Wilder throwing punches like a swimmer, but it was Wilder’s first fight back since rehabilitating multiple injuries to his right arm and at the end of the day, he got the job done. After the fight, Wilder stated he would be watching April’s WBO world title fight between champion Joseph Parker and England’s undefeated Hughie Fury and that he would target the winner for a title unification bout.
One heavyweight who came out of Saturday’s event with his reputation on the mend is 18-1 Dominic Breazeale who scored a 5th round KO over Izuagbe Ugonoh in a hard fought slug fest that can only be called a crowd pleaser.
For Wilder, the most lucrative fight of all will be with Anthony Joshua, who owns the IBF version of the world heavyweight title and has become the sport’s biggest draw. Joshua has the biggest fight of his life coming up next when he faces Wladimir Klitschko at London’s Wembley Stadium. Klitschko held the majority of the unified world titles for nearly a decade before he lost to Tyson Fury at the end of 2015. Klitschko is now 40 and he has not been in the ring for more than a year but he deserves credit and respect for taking this fight.
The first weekend of march sees London hosting the heavyweight showdown between David Haye and Tony Bellew. This is a bit of a grudge match as the two have engaged in a war of words since before the fight was signed. In the ring however, many are dismissing the fight and all it’s possibilities as Haye is considered to be a top 10 heavyweight despite five years of inactivity while Bellew is seen more as a cruiserweight champion who is moving up for a fight he has little chance in.
Recently crowned WBO champ Parker is defending his belt at home in New Zealand against Hughie Fury, the cousin of Klitschko vanquisher Tyson Fury. Many insiders will tell you that Hughie is the more grounded and more talented of the two cousins but we haven’t seen him in close to a year. Parker looks like he will play “hometown hero” again for this one as the fight is slated for his home country of New Zealand.
Rating Deontay Wilder TnS Boxing Podcast #38
In this latest TalknShoot Boxing Podcast we are joined by frequent guest Frank Lotierzo to try to wrap our arms around what is a budding heavyweight division.
Lotierzo spends some time talking bout Alexander Povetkin, the Russian heavyweight who is 30-1 but at the center of a growing storm involving Performance Enhancing Drugs. The Russian could be the most dangerous challenge to any of the current crop of world champions but business and politics and the stigma attached to steroids are all working against him.
Rating Deontay Wilder TnS Boxing Podcast #38 / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science, where the best boxing writers write.
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