Did Wilder’s explosive win pave over the cracks or further enhance his fearsome reputation?

In front of a star studded audience at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, Deontay Wilder defended his WBC heavyweight title with a spectacular one punch knockout of Luis Ortiz. The Cuban native was well ahead on the scorecards and looking comfortable, until Wilder unleashed a devastating right hand to tie Muhammed Ali with 10 consecutive heavyweight title defences.

As explosive and spectacular a victory it was, after I came back down from the excitement, I did have mixed thoughts about Wilder’s victory. At the end of the day, you cannot deny the sheer power of the man and you cannot blame him for relying on that power, as time and again he has demonstrated this, to the detriment of other boxers.

I mean, his record speaks for itself. Every fighter he has faced, he has dropped. Only Bermaine Stiverne and Tyson Fury has gone the distance with him. However, after Stiverne went the distance in their first fight, he got annihilated in one round by Wilder in their second fight. Fury on the other hand, got dropped twice but Wilder was lucky to come away with a draw from their battle a year ago.

That exact issue is the why I have mixed thoughts about Wilder’s victory. In his post fight press conference he did state that he is getting better with every fight, but stated that his improvement is about setting up the knockout shots but nothing else. Also in his press conference, Wilder stated he is scheduled to fight Fury in February 2020.

After dropping Fury twice, he believes he can and will knock Fury out, but that was the exact problem is their first fight and with such a good boxer and mover as Tyson Fury, as well as, his demonstrated powers of recovery, Wilder may not get out of jail a second time.

A friend made a comment to me after Wilder’s explosive 7th round victory of Ortiz, he stated Wilder cant box for shit, I agreed, but stated, when you have power like that, you don’t need to be able to box well. Although that was somewhat tongue in cheek, it seems that is how Wilder is looking at it.

From Wilder’s post fight press conference, when he stated he is getting better setting up the shots. I know he just expects to knockout every opponent, and when you have demonstrated that power time and again by dropping every opponent (41) you have faced in the professional ranks, can you really blame him? But he is playing a dangerous game.

I feel Wilder needs to be very cautious in relying on his power. Fair enough, I know nobody is in a position to tell a man with that freakish amount of power not to rely on it, but he was way behind on the cards in the Oriz fight and although you knew he was  waiting for that one bomb and that one bomb did come, how long can he do this for?

Oriz’ southpaw stance gave Wilder all the trouble he could handle. I kept saying throughout the fight, “Wilder is not doing anything, he is barely throwing”.

I am not sure if that was part of the game plan, to tire Ortiz out in the early rounds and allow him to throw punches, then come on strong in the second half of the fight, knowing he has that devastating power. However, even though he showed heart and bravado throughout the fight, you sensed Wilder was getting a bit frustrated and was getting caught by Ortiz a few times and more than he would have wanted.

But credit to Wilder, as he took the good shots, no real devastating, flush ones but he still had to have his wits about him and showed distain and confidence for Oriz’ attacks. I suppose that’s what unrivalled power does. You cannot help but have confidence when you know you can switch off the lights in an instant.

And that’s exactly what he did, and it was absolutely out of nothing. Wilder unleashed an explosive straight right hand, similar to the shot that ended the Breazeale fight.

The punch landed flush on Ortiz’ forehead. You could see the just how hard the impact was from the replays as the sweat spayed almost yards off Ortiz’ head, from the sheer impact.

This sent Ortiz to the canvas, the shot switched off all his senses and he collapsed in a heap, with shock all over his face. Just seconds ago I am sure he was feeling confident at how the fight was going. Ortiz did well to attempt at getting up and almost made the account but you could see he was in no mode to continue thanks to Wilder’s power.

But what will happen in February if Tyson Fury can match the same performance as their first fight? Wilder admitted he became too reliant on looking for that one shot and it allowed Fury to score points and take him out of his game. Wilder was lucky to come away from that with a draw, as the truth is, apart from the two knockdowns, he didn’t do much else.

Fury feels he is a much better fighter then in their first fight and he was a very good fighter then. Wilder feels although Fury miraculously recovered from the knockdown in the 12th round, he will not be so lucky when they meet again. However, I do feel, although he does possess that power, that one tracked game plan will not last forever.

That said, in my time watching boxing, which is a considerable number of years, there has been some, but not many boxers I have seen with such concussive, explosive power. I do feel it is a treat and throwback to the old boxing days of heavyweights exciting the crowd and getting them off their feet with such brutal, yet poetic devastation.

I said it before and I still do believe, the heavyweight division is currently going through an era that will have a significant place in boxing history. Wilder & Fury’s first fight and impending second fight will be a main player in that history. Anthony Joshua’s story will also be a huge part, not to mention his fights with Ruiz Jr, no matter what way the second fight goes. There are also a few up and coming heavyweights who could still have a say.

In the next few months the heavyweight division will be treated to two rematches that will go down in history and shape the heavyweight division. Hopefully it will lead to the winner of Ruiz Jr v Joshua 2 fighting the winner between Wilder v Fury 2. Hopefully it wont end there and it will start or continue a chain reaction of huge heavyweight match ups.

As the world awaits for the Ruiz v Joshua 2 fight on Dec 7th, It will be even more intriguing to see Wilder again put his devastating on punch knockout power up against the boxing ability of Tyson Fury. I will be interested to see if Fury really can match his performance of their first fight and if like Wilder said, Fury will not be so luck the second time around.

I do feel Wilder needs to bring more to the table to get past Tyson Fury in the rematch. However, with such explosive power, how can you really bet against him? Like he said, his opponents have to be perfect for 12 rounds, all he needs is to be perfect for just one second and its game over…..