The Skillful Chaos of the Bronze Bomber
Deontay Wilder isn’t perfect. Far from it. His defense is leaky. He can drop his hands/shoulders after throwing. His wild punches open him up. His footwork hampers his balance (and makes him look bad even when he’s doing something right). He gets predictable and head-hunts when frustrated.
But he also has the intelligence to experiment and learn mid-fight. Use high-level setups to find openings against fundamentally sound boxers. And pick up on mistakes if not outright force them with feints and conditioning.
His highs and lows make any fight dangerous (both for him and his opponent). It wouldn’t be the most shocking thing if he got chinned by a fighter far below his pay-grade. But how many fighters in history wouldn’t he at least have a real puncher’s chance against?
Like a mentally unstable artist, any performance of his could be a train-wreck or a fistic masterpiece (but more likely some combination of the two).
And fittingly enough, Wilder’s emotions have driven him to where he’s gotten, but they might also be the end of him one day. We saw Deontay Wilder at both his worst and best against Tyson Fury and his mind games.
Already signed to face two of the most skilled heavyweights alive, Wilder must draw upon the best of himself if he hopes to still be a champion when the dust settles.
Take a look at the skills that Wilder employed against the two best defensive heavyweights today
Ortiz’s superior read of distance won him the jabbing contest. But Wilder countered with two hooks before safely bouncing away. Wilder will never be an un-hittable fighter, but he can place his shots well to win trades (and avoid eating free damage).
Wilder doubled his jab to get through twice before gliding away. The third time he doubled his jab, his true intentions were disguised. Instead of escaping, he now used his left to pull open Ortiz’s guard for a flush right.
Wilder feinted and Ortiz’s right mistakenly tried to parry leaving a hole open for Wilder’s. Ortiz realized his mistake and tucked his chin to survive the incoming blow.
Wilder’s level-change here deceived Ortiz’s right. Ortiz does manage to partially parry the blow, but Wilder threw the shot with good enough form (and power) to get through anyway.
Wilder’s clumsy balance has him looking a bit awkward even when he’s actually effectively moving and rolling with the (usually) accurate counters of Luis Ortiz.
Wilder used a check-left to occupy Ortiz’s right-hand (similar to how Carl Froch knocked out George Groves). He then moved his head to avoid Ortiz’s straight (while landing his own).
For all the talk of Ortiz gassing, the Cuban looked like the fresher fighter early in the 10th. He chased Wilder into the corner with a triple-jab followed by a straight. But Wilder picked up on Ortiz repeating himself and swung the fight around with a short counter-right.
Wilder picked up on Fury’s feints and timed him with his piston of a jab.
Wilder’s bread-and-butter is the 1–2, but his body-shots and uppercuts can be a bit underrated as well. Wilder recognized that Fury’s low lead left-hand could be lowered further with body shots and fought accordingly early.
Wilder entered the fight throwing 1–2’s in a straight line before adjusting to throw his right at an angle (to follow Fury’s head movement) and follow up with the left hook. Simple fundamental adjustments to catch one of the most elusive heavyweights in memory. He’ll need to draw upon these skills and more in the coming months.
Deontay Wilder is signed to face Luis Ortiz and Tyson Fury within the next 13 weeks. Win or lose, we might never look at him in the same way again. Wilder could move to #5 in most heavyweight title defenses ever. But a single Cuban missile could send Wilder back to the drawing board as early as Saturday.
As early as last year, Wilder was decried by critics as a protected hype-job or paper champ. Now he’s popularly tabbed to ascend to the top of the sport’s most prestigious division. His profile and status as a fighter has exploded in the past year, but now it’s up to him to show what the hype is about.
His path to greatness is mapped. His ability is self-evident. But there’s more to greatness than talent. He’ll have to successfully execute upon his promise. Keep his head on straight, learn from his mistakes, and fend off the two giants waiting in the wings.
