Deontay Wilder Says Johann Duhaupas Hit Him Hardest

When the former champion Deontay Wilder was asked to identify the heaviest hands he had encountered, he avoided the names that usually dominate the conversation or the fighters marketed as wrecking balls. He looked back at a 2015 defense against a man who was brought in to provide rounds and little else.

Johann Duhaupas is not a name that moves the needle in the current heavyweight climate. He was the type of tough, durable opponent used to fill a date on a broadcast schedule when the primary goal is keeping the champion active without risking the title. During their eleven rounds in Alabama, the Frenchman offered a kind of resistance that rarely shows up in a highlight reel but stays in the joints of the man across from him.

Wilder told Vegas Insider that the Duhaupas jab was the most hardest he felt in the ring.

“He was the one that I felt. He had some heavy hands.” This assessment is revealing because it ignores the technical sophistication of Tyson Fury or the explosive pressure of Zhilei Zhang. It suggests that what a fighter feels through the gloves often contradicts the narrative being sold to the fans.

Duhaupas was never marketed as a puncher but rather as a man who was difficult to discourage. He went into that fight having never been stopped, a status he maintained through sheer stubbornness until the referee stepped in during the eleventh round. The boxing world often overlooks these types of veterans, yet they are the ones who provide the most honest feedback about a champion’s actual standing.

The Frenchman later shared the ring with Alexander Povetkin and Robert Helenius, proving that his ability to absorb and return fire was not a one-time occurrence.

The heavyweight division is currently crowded with prospects who have yet to face a man willing to hit them back with that kind of consistency. If Wilder, a man who built his career on one-punch finishes, found the Duhaupas jab to be his toughest test, it says more about the current state of top-contender power than it does about the Frenchman’s record. Most heavyweights today rely on a single attribute, whereas the old-school durability of a fighter like Duhaupas remains a rare and uncomfortable obstacle.