Deontay Wilder Got His Statement Win, It’s Joseph Parker & Anthony Joshua’s Turn Next
Late in the seventh round of their heavyweight title fight, Luis Ortiz had Deontay Wilder on the ropes. Having sort of slumbered through the first few rounds, Wilder had stepped it up by dropping Ortiz in the fifth but late in the seventh he got rocked. Ortiz caught him with a left over the top that trapped him in the corner. Wilder tried to work his way around and threw a couple mean rights down the middle. Ortiz withstood them and then, with Wilder dangling his jab out there, threw a testing right hook and then a brutal left straight through him. Wilder was hurt.
For the remaining forty seconds of the round, the man they call King Kong was on a rampage. Wilder leant over him, trying to get his head out of the way. Ortiz ducked out of the clinch and stormed at him. A devastating left sent The Bronze Bomber bouncing into the ropes and another right came down over his head. Punches flying all over, Wilder had another twenty seconds to somehow survive. It looked like the knockout artist was heading for his first stoppage the other way… and yet, incredibly, somehow Wilder stayed on his feet.
Looking back now, that should be a defining round in Wilder’s career. Any doubt that he could take a punch was annihilated by Luis Ortiz’s ruthless flurries. Ortiz can knock almost any bugger in the world on their arse except, apparently, for Deontay Wilder. The American recovered from that pasting and managed to catch Ortiz a couple times in the next few rounds and then thoroughly despatched of him in the tenth. He said himself afterwards that champions respond in the most difficult moments. Well, Deontay Wilder is certainly a champion.
Lennox Lewis knows what’s up, he’s one of the greats. There was something else he tweeted out about in the aftermath of that fight too. Someone claimed boxing as being about opinions, Lennox responded: “No. Boxing is about facts... the people are about opinions.... that’s why they get into the ring to see if the opinions match the facts.”
That’s it right there. Boxing is such a fascinating sport specifically because of how dangerous and challenging it is. You put two powerful human beings in the ring together and ask them to fight, you push them to the very limits of themselves and see who triumphs. The boxer is fighting himself as much as he’s fighting an opponent. And when we’re looking at the ultimate capabilities of these guys we can then speculate whose ultimate self can top who other’s ultimate self. You can’t halfarse it in the ring or you get punished, which is why, as Lennox Lewis says, boxing is absolutely about facts.
And the fact is that Deontay Wilder beat Luis Ortiz. He displayed his strengths and he displayed his weaknesses. We saw that he struggles to outbox a dude (I had Ortiz up after the early rounds) but also that he can cop a punch from the best of them and his own power? Magnificent. An unorthodox fighter who likes to throw from odd angles (including straight down the middle) and a fighter who will give back all that he takes and with interest. After wondering if he’s perhaps showing some flat-track-bully tendencies against weaker opponents, he just did what Anthony Joshua did against Wladimir Klitschko – shout out to Lennie for the take.
So… Wilder versus Joshua… who wins? Frankly, it’d be a fascinating bout between the two best KO artists of this generation, each with question marks about their durability against the best if only because neither has come up against an opponent they can’t knockout yet. Which is not an exaggeration. Wilder’s got 39 KOs from 40 fights and he came back and destroyed Bermane Stiverne the second time. Joshua’s a perfect 20 wins with 20 KOs.
The heavyweight scene is odd right now because the sustained dominance of the Klitschko’s for the better part of two decades effectively wiped out a generation of contenders so with the Ukrainian Hall of Famers leaving the scene it’s now wide open for the next generation, who are still having to establish themselves while already ascending to the pinnacle. It’s insane that Deontay Wilder has defended his title belt seven times now yet was still considered unproven a few days ago. There’s just nothing to compare these guys to except each other… which brings us to the wrinkle in the matter.
We got through 750 words without even mentioning Joseph Parker. Deontay Wilder did his bit, now Joshua vs Parker on April 1 (NZT) gets to decide where things proceed from here. Winner likely fights DW for the unified heavyweight championship. Watching two sluggers go at it in Wilder and Ortiz certainly sparked it up for Wilder vs Joshua but nobody is writing Joseph Parker off. Wilder said as much, which was nice because him talking about Joe enabled kiwi mainstream media an excuse to actually mention that fight on the news. Parker is a different style of fighter but that style might be his advantage.
What Ortiz lacked was fitness and footwork. He had the strength to match with Wilder and he probably had the superior technique as well, which is not really something people talk about with Ortiz – who is in the same tier of power with DW & AJ. Problem was that he couldn’t keep it up and when he got hit, he got rattled. When Wilder got hit he recovered and came back. Joshua has done the same thing in the past, most notably against Klitschko. What could happen when those two are left to withstand each other and dish it out at the same time is a mouthwatering prospect.
Joseph Parker was talked up initially as a ruthless slugger but power just ain’t his thing. Instead he’s arguably the best pure boxer of the title-holding trio. His last couple fights have been ugly but he’s won them all, gonna go out on the line here and say that he’s capable of doing the same against each of these two guys. Their knockout power sets them apart since that one punch could end it all. Parker can’t knock them out, at least not unless he works them down first with a clever plan, so he’s not coming into either as a favourite (although to fight Wilder he’ll have to beat Joshua first, which would change things).
Now, say he can take every punch without getting hurt. This is the pinnacle but he’s never been hurt before and those are the only facts we’ve got to go on. Criticise the spectacle if you want but if Parker can slow AJ down and make it ugly then he can win that on points for sure. Wilder wasn’t dominating rounds in between knockdowns either. Then again, Wilder might be more aggressive if he knows Parker can’t really hurt him. Which if Ortiz couldn’t, then Parker sure can’t.
None of these are facts though, it’s all speculation. Which is what makes the imminence of these matchups so exciting. It’s time to stop questioning the credentials of these top dudes and finally get around to the business of May The Best Man Win.
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