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Wilder Is In No Win Versus Molina, But Looking Great Won’t Hurt

Published

9 years ago

June 12, 2015

This past January American heavyweight Deontay Wilder 33-0 (32) won a 12-round unanimous decision over WBC title holder Bermane Stiverne to capture the title. With the win, Wilder became the first American to hold a share of the heavyweight title since 2006, when Shannon Briggs held the WBO version.

This weekend Wilder will make his first defense against Eric Molina 23-2 (17) in his hometown of Tuscaloosa Alabama, known as “Title Town” of college football.

Tuscaloosa is where the Alabama Crimson Tide Football team calls home. The Crimson Tide have won more FBS National championships than any other team in college football to date, and three under current head coach Nick Saban, with the last being in 2012.

Wilder stands 6’7″ and is regarded as being a knockout puncher in much the same vein as Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev. All three own some of the highest KO percentages among active title claimants. However, based on their opposition, Golovkin and Kovalev are accepted as being more authentic when it comes to possessing one punch fight-ending power, and that’s probably a fair assessment. When it comes to evaluating punchers, it’s not how many fighters a particular fighter has stoppage wins over, it’s who he’s stopped, that is the ultimate lie detector in regards to whether or not his power is legitimate. And unfortunately, Wilder, regardless of how impressive he may look in dispatching Molina, that question will not be answered conclusively. And that’s because Molina is not seen as being all that durable, being he was stopped in the first round by Chris Arreola back in February of 2012.

As for a brief summation of 6’4″ Molina, there’s not much. He’s relatively slow with some semblance of a right hand, but has no corresponding offense to go with it. He did manage to stun the easy to hit Arreola with a good right hand before he ate a left hook to the right temple and was dropped by a follow up right hand to the left temple. Since being stopped by Arreola, Molina is 5-0 (4) with the only recognizable name of the five being DaVarryl Williamson who he stopped in the fifth round in May of 2014. So if you size up Wilder and Molina, Wilder has every conceivable advantage that one fighter could hold over another pertaining to their skill-set and physicality. Deontay should be able to do whatever he wants to do against the over-matched Molina, and he better because his critics will be watching closely.

One thing is for sure about Wilder that cannot be questioned, he is a very hard worker and he sees the big picture when surveying boxing’s future landscape. He recently said:

“Floyd Mayweather seems to be coming to the end. Boxing needs me to take over. I believe I can be the exciting new face. There is nothing better than the heavyweights to keep the boom going. The fans love the big men. Historically ours is the sport’s marquee division and it’s great for the game that it is coming back to life. It’s also time to bring back the undisputed heavyweight championship to America, where it belongs.”

Give Wilder his props, he gets it and I believe he also gets that action packed fights/fighters are what draw fans to certain pugilist and bouts. Boxing is foaming at the mouth for a show stopping big-punching heavyweight to take the baton from the Klitschko’s after a decade of utter dominance. Wilder will be ripped in the media for defending his title against a fighter like Molina, but in all fairness to him, the current heavyweight landscape isn’t loaded with fighters the likes of Ron Lyle, Jerry Quarry, Earnie Shavers, Tim Witherspoon, Michael Dokes and fighters of that ilk. And if you think about it, as formidable as the two best heavyweights since Lennox Lewis retired, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko were, both built their title tenures beating guys like Eric Molina in title bouts, and more often than not in convincing fashion. And that’s what elite fighters should do against pedestrian opposition. So Wilder better get rid of Molina impressively to quell the negative chatter.

The question we don’t know is whether or not Wilder is elite. However, there are some emerging heavyweights on the horizon for Wilder to test himself against to prove he just may be, like Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Bryant Jennings and Vyacheslav Glazkov. And he just may get a shot at Wladimir Klitschko before too long, and if he can beat even a declining Klitschko, he will have surpassed most expectations on him and set himself up nicely for some meaningful bouts that just may garner some noteworthy attention.

Wilder is in a no win position against Molina because he’s expected to demolish him this weekend. If he struggles, he’ll be a bum in the eyes of the media and fans. And if he blows him out, he beat a stiff. But at least that will keep the interest in him alive. The latter is much better for him.

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME

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Frank Lotierzo

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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