Deontay Wilder – Artur Szpilka & Vyacheslav Glazkov – Charles Martin: Can America Once Again Dominate the Heavyweight Division?
By Anthony “Stacks” Saldana
When people think of great American heavyweight champions many names come to mind, names such as Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Evander Holyfield, Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier and of course Mike Tyson. This Saturday night Deontay Wilder 35-0, 34 KO’s, the undefeated WBC heavyweight champion from Tuscaloosa, Alabama will look to remain undefeated and looks to quickly spark up the public interest of the heavyweight division when he takes on Artur Szpilka 20-1, 12 KO’s. Saturday’s fight will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This fight will be the first heavyweight title fight in Brooklyn in 115 years.
The last heavyweight fight Brooklyn hosted was when James Jeffries knocked out James Corbett in the 23rd round, May 11, 1900, on Coney Island. 2016 is also the 30 year anniversary of Mike Tyson’s knockout of Canadian Trevor Berbick, to begin what many fans believe was the last era of a true Great American heavyweight champion. Wilder is by no means the recognized heavyweight champion of today, but he is the first American to hold a piece of the crown in over eight years. Wilder is still making a name himself in his own community where his often been mistaken for one of Nick Saban’s football players and even Lebron James.
The United States has seemingly fallen from the top of the heavyweight division in boxing because other sports like football and basketball draw away some of the nation’s top athletes. With better pay and a more structured league, the choice makes sense. For Wilder, a starting wide receiver and power forward for his high school football and basketball team, earned a sports scholarship from Alabama University. After long consideration and his daughter being born with Spina Bifida weighing heavy on him, Deontay dropped out of the junior college he was attending and turned to boxing as a means to provide for his family. Wilder won the Bronze Medal in the Beijing games, turned pro and after winning his first 32 fights all by knockout, captured the WBC Heavyweight title from Bermane Stiverne in January of 2015. The Bronze Bomber is set to defend his WBC title for the third time with plans of a unification title match later in the year. Deontay Wilder holds the hopes and dreams for many boxing fans in his hands. With Floyd Mayweather, JR. arguably the most recognized fighter in the world retiring the United States needs someone like Wilder to take the boxing world over. I believe with Klitschko losing earlier this year, the IBF title being stripped from Tyson Fury and Deontay peaking at the right time a perfect storm may be brewing to give fans the heavyweight hero they’ve been waiting for.
Saturday night on the Wilder Szpilka undercard another American looks to capture a piece of the Heavyweight championship as Charles Martin, 22-0, 20 KO’s from St. Louis, Missouri but fighting out of Carson, California takes on Vyacheslav Glazkov 21-0, 12 KO’s for the vacant IBF world title. The IBF recently stripped the title from Tyson Fury after Fury agreed to give a Wladimir Klitschko rematch. Martin, nicknamed “Prince,” was scheduled to fight unbeaten Southland heavyweight Dominic Breazale on a Premier Boxing Champions card last month, but Al Haymon convinced him to withdraw when the title bout against Glazkov was at hand. “Prince Charles” is trained by 1984 U.S. Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Henry Tillman and Amar Abdullah, got a late start in boxing, joining the All-American Heavyweight Academy in California when he was 19. He started fighting as an amateur at 23 and turned pro at 26 in 2012. If Wilder and Martin emerge victorious this coming Saturday, expect a huge push towards a WBC-IBF title unification bout and a subsequent burial of any talk regarding Wilder vs. Alexander Povetkin. Saturday’s fights carry huge implications on the heavyweight division. Saturdays championship fight will be part of Showtime’s free weekend and can also be streamed via YouTube starting at 10:00 PM EST.
[si-contact-form form=’2′]