Curtis M. (Orlando, FL): Deontay Wilder seems to be catching steam, and lately there’s been talk of him facing Wladimir Klitschko. Do you give him a shot at winning if the fight were to happen within the next year or so?

Vivek W. (ESB): Wilder is one of the hottest rising prospects in the heavyweight landscape today. He has power, decent speed, and a little personality to sell himself. That being said, I have very mixed emotions on his chances if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko. I’m always very skeptical about fighters who enter the ring with so much knockout success in the past. Particularly young fighters on the rise. There’s always an untold story. In this case, I have the same questions. What happens when he faces someone who he can’t hurt, that also possess the power to hurt, and potentially even stop him?

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We’ve seen IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) talk about retirement if he were to lose, and now WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is saying he’ll retire if he loses to Froch in their fight this month on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

I don’t know that I believe that Kessler will retire no matter how bad he looks in getting beat by Froch, but I do think it’s a smart way to market the fight. When you make the retirement threat, boxing fans seem to pick up interest in the fight thinking that it could be the last time they see a particular fighter making the threat.

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Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Neither fighter will have their titles on the line, as the fight will take place at a catchweight of 141 lbs. It seems that neither guy wanted to put up their strap for the fight. Matthysse only had his WBC interim light welterweight title, and that wasn’t worth anything to Peterson. He wants the full title, not an interim strap.

However, the winner of this fight will be getting a lot more than if there was a title on the line. The winner gets to move onto face WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in an important bout that leads to Amir Khan waiting at the end of the line later on this year. That’s how Golden Boy Promotions set it up.

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Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, won’t bother giving injured challenger Jose Gonzalez a chance for a rematch after he injured his left wrist and was halted in the 9th round last Saturday night.

Hearn wants to match Burns against IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez this September if he can put the fight together. That’s a big question mark because Burns and Vazquez were scheduled to fight each other not too long ago and the fight failed to come off.

It’s hard to imagine what Burns could gain from going back to this fight because it’s not as if Vazquez has a huge worldwide fan base. However, if Burns can capture another belt it might give him more respect from boxing fans.

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Still not willing to end his long 20-year pro career, 41-year-old Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be back in this ring this Saturday night against the young 23-year-old powerful but deeply flawed Pablo Cesar Cano (26-2-1, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Surely if Mosley can’t win this fight he should retire, right? Probably not. Mosley will likely keep trucking along with his career win or lose against Cano, and you have to wonder what’ll take for him to finally retire. Cano has losses to Paulie Malignaggi and a way past his best Erik Morales. Cano took a real beating by Morales I getting stopped in the 10th round in September 2011.

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In what appears to be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) making a partial excuse for his poor performance last Saturday night in beating Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage, Burns complained after the fight that he hadn’t been able to study Gonzalez going into the fight because of the lack of video out there on the 29-year-old fighter from Puerto Rico.

Gonzalez had been flying under the radar for so long in fighting less than world class opposition during his 5-year pro career that there just wasn’t much for Burns to see of him on video.

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