Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder, is wasting his time if he fights former IBF champion Charles Martin rather than Andy Ruiz Jr, according to promoter Lou DiBella.
He feels that a fight against the 34-year-old Martin (28-2-1, 25 KOs) does nothing for the recently knocked out Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), who needs a significant victory to make fans forget his loss to Tyson Fury.
Beating the 6’5″ southpaw Martin won’t be a big enough win for Wilder to try and get back to where he was before. DiBella would rather see Wilder take on former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr (33-2, 22 KOs) next.
The problem with trying to get a fight against Ruiz is he hasn’t fought since his rematch with Anthony Joshua in 2019, and he’s been glacially slow in returning to the ring.
Ruiz gained a bunch of weight before and after his rematch with Joshua in December 2019, and it’s taken him over a year to get himself in shape with the help of his new trainer Eddy Reynoso.
Wilder should fight Andy Ruiz
“I couldn’t give a s*** against him against Charles Martin as a fan,” said DiBella to SecondsOut about Deontay Wilder potentially facing Martin in his next fight.
“I’m not going to begrudge [Team Martinez] a payday, but who gives a f*** about that fight? I’d rather see Deontay face someone in stateside that would mean something, someone like Andy Ruiz.
“I think that’s a saleable fight, two former champions, both of whom have been in with the top of the division. That to me is an interesting fight.
“I’ve seen [Dominic] Breazeale, I’ve seen Gerald Washington, and I’ve seen Charles Martin fight other people,” said DiBella.
“To me, Charles Martin is like another Breazeale or Gerald Washington type of fighter. I don’t think it means very much or proves very much.
“I got to be honest with you. Coming off of a layoff, an injury [bicep], and an a** whipping like Deontay took [against Tyson Fury], I don’t think his next fight is going to be an easy go no matter who it is.
“I think he’s got a lot to prove to himself and to the boxing world. But I don’t know what a Charles Martin fight does for anybody, particularly the fan,” said DiBella.
Wilder would likely jump at the chance to fight Ruiz Jr if it were there, but it probably won’t be. Ruiz hasn’t been talking about who he wants to fight.
We heard 39-year-old Chris Arreola’s name mentioned last year as a potential comeback opponent for Ruiz, but then nothing came of that fight.
You have to assume that maybe Arreola was a little too risky of a fight for Ruiz, who might need an easy mark for when he does come back.
DiBella picks Hrgovic over Bakaole
“It’s a good fight, I would favor [Filip] Hrgovic heavily,” said DiBella when asked about the heavyweight match-up between Hrgovic and Martin Bakole.
“I’m sold on him [Hrgovic] as a quality top 10 heavyweight. I’m not sold on Bakole as that. I don’t think he’s a bad fighter.
“He got badly outboxed by [Michael] Hunter, I thought. And I would think he would get outboxed by Hrgovic, who is also a physically stronger man than Hunter.
“But I don’t dislike the fight. Look, I like heavyweights more than most people.
“One way that these streaming services and networks worldwide are blowing it a bit is they’re not paying attention to how much fight fans and the general public, the general sports fans, like the big guys.
“When I was at HBO, I always got that. I always had a major presence, not just with the heavyweight champion, but making quality heavyweight match-ups like keeping active in the heavyweight division.
“I don’t think the heavyweights are getting the shine they deserve right now because if you make competitive fights with heavyweights, people want to see that, I want to see that.
“The whole hipster thing sitting there and talking about Japanese dudes, guys from Thailand, and 108-pound guys from Mexico and South America.
“I mean, I like a good fight, but I’m not into midget boxing, really. I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize to little people everywhere.
But the point I’m making is, I’m not much of a hipster. Give me two big giant men slugging it out.
Yeah, I’ll watch [Juan Francisco] Estrada and Chocolatito. I mean, I’m a boxing guy, but I don’t really care about esoteric stuff with 108, 105, and 112-pound guys from around the world when we’re ignoring the heavyweight division.” DiBella said.
‘Stone Man’ Filip Hrgovic isn’t a sure thing against a solid heavyweight like Martin Bakole or anything that has chin and size.
Hrgovic is a good heavyweight, but he’s robotic, and he struggles when his opponents can handle his power.
If Bakole can get his own shots and not fold right away like the poor opposition that Hrgovic’s management has been feeding him for the last four years, he could beat him.
Hrgovic’s potential has been wasting away all this time due to the terrible match-making that’s been done for him. He’s 28, and he’s still never fought a world-level heavyweight.
Bakole might be a flawed guy, but he’s a massive step up for Hrgovic from the weak fighters he’s been faced with.
Hrgoic should have started his career fighting guys at Bakole’s level instead of burning through four years, fighting inferior opposition repeatedly.
Whyte beats Povetkin
“I’m going to give an edge to my man [Dillian] Whyte in this one [against Alexander Povetkin]. I’m going to give the edge to Dillian in this one.
“I think that he just got caught [in his first fight with Povetkin in August 2020]. I’ve become a Dillian Whyte fan over time. He’s too open to an uppercut.
“He’s wide open to an uppercut. So is it conceivable to me that it could follow the same script? Yeah, because Povetkin knows how to throw an uppercut, a pretty good one, and if Whyte can’t avoid it and he gets caught with the same punch that he doesn’t see coming, he’s going to go to sleep again.
“But let’s face reality, he dominated the fight until he got caught, and I think he’s going to be more careful in the next fight.
“I’m going to guess that he has a good enough corner around him that they’re going to spend a decent time in that camp that he doesn’t leave himself so open for the same punch.
“So my money will be on Dillian. Also, I’m not a big fan of Povetkin. he took a lot of money out of my pocket with whatever he ingested.
“I spend hundreds of thousands of legal fees to sue him only to have it overturned. I lost the money because the fight never happened with Deontay.
“So sort of literally, he took money out of my pocket. I’m not a big fan, though I got to tell you, he landed it perfect [against Whyte]. That was some punch that he landed in that fight.
“[Joe] Joyce, and I’m mentioning him because he’s not a young kid because he was an amateur for so long,” said DiBella when asked which young heavyweights have caught his eye.
“But he showed me a lot in his last fight [against Daniel Dubois]. His sock went up with me pretty heavily in his last fight.,” said DiBella.
I don’t know that Whyte does beat Povetkin in their March 6th rematch. There’s a perfect chance that Povetkin will land another uppercut and knock the daylights out of Whyte for a second time.
Whyte leans forward when he fights, and that’s why he’ll always be vulnerable to uppercuts. At this point in Whyte’s career, he can’t change how he stands when he throws punches because that’s how he generates his power.
If he leans back of stands straight up when throwing shots, he’ll have nothing on the punches. He’ll lose just the same fighting like that.