Every Last Fucking Thing You Need To Know About Heavyweight Boxing After Tonight's Ass-Whooping (plus 2 unrelated GIFs)
Robbie posted this result a little earlier… Must be nice to be young and sober.
There are some more close-up and slo-mo angles of this ending, but I think the real-time “THUD” of that right hand is the most revealing…
With his ninth title defense, Deontay Wilder is the longest tenured heavyweight champ alive and the only current belt holder born in the US… He is also arguably the biggest asshole after his comments earlier this week alluding to the fact he could get paid for killing his opponent in the ring.
Not much to glean from this fight because of its early end, but Wilder did seem a little more disciplined and his right hands looked to be thrown straighter than his usually flailing and slappy (albeit effective with 40 KOs) overhand punches.
Deontay was certainly a heavy favorite over Breazeale but this matchup was still the most intriguing of the 3 heavyweight bouts that are on the horizon. Anthony Joshua will make his US debut June 1st fighting a fill-in named Andy Ruiz Jr (32-1) in MSG after his original challenger (and fucking idiot), Jarrell Miller, failed multiple drug tests. Then Tyson Fury squares off against a German no-name, Tom Schwarz (24-0), in Vegas on June 15th.
A handful of readers defended Ruiz saying he was a fundamentally sound and competitive boxer after I questioned his punching power and posted this non-flattering picture of him last week…
However, nobody has come to the defense of Tom Schwarz. I did find this clip of Schwarzy flopping after a headbutt in a fight earlier this year against a much smaller foe, and then getting into a brawl after his opponent was DQ’d…
I will be interviewing Tyson Fury on Monday morning sometime after 8 AM on Barstool Breakfast and I will try to get the skinny on this German soup-can he is fighting next month. More importantly, I will also ask him how far away we are from Fury vs Wilder Part II, and how the hell he got up after that right-left combo put him on his back in the 12th round of their original matchup.
As one of the SHOWTIME announcers alluded to post-fight, the dance that we are seeing between the 3 marquee heavyweights right now has become reminiscent of Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe… Two very recognizable heavyweight champions who climbed up the ranks together in the early 90s.
Even though both fighters were sensible (and at one point in ‘92, mandatory) opponents they never touched gloves as professionals. And I say “as professionals” because Lennox won a controversial stoppage over Bowe in the 1988 Seoul Olympics giving Lewis the gold medal in the Super-Heavyweight division, while Riddick had to settle for silver.
I don’t think Joshua/Wilder/Fury will avoid each other forever, but these sloppy little fights that they are scheduling in the interim will only help to either cause boxing fans to walk away without even turning around to smile…
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OR give us an upset that will shoot down their chances at that super-fight-type dough.
When Jim Gray pressed Wilder about a potential Fury/Joshua fight, Deontay responded, “Patience is a virtue.”… But it’s also pretty fucking boring.
Take a report.
-Large