Comments Thread For: DiBella: Wilder Will See Specialist For Hand and Bicep Injuries

[Prince Madison]

let me guess, deontays injuries will heal when joshua, ortiz and fury have all got fights scheduled, so deontay gets an excuse to fight a bum, one of the most pathetic fighters in the sport deontay is

[flem1]

let me guess, deontays injuries will heal when joshua, ortiz and fury have all got fights scheduled, so deontay gets an excuse to fight a bum, one of the most pathetic fighters in the sport deontay is

You should blame Povetkin though. He's the reason we got this fight. Him and his PEDs.

[Prince Madison]

You should blame Povetkin though. He's the reason we got this fight. Him and his PEDs.

yeah povetkin was an idiot. However, doesnt excuse wilder fighting fat boy arreola, why is it if someone pulls out they automatically have to fight someone useless? Im not a ufc fan but when mcgregors opponent pulled out, a top fighter in diaz steps in.

[koolbreez12]

Lol, boxingscene conspiracy theorists!! He's faking an injury! He ducked Povetkin because the WBC postponed the fight! You guys are real beauties!!

Haha I know right? Pretty ridiculous

[koolbreez12]

I agree with this so much, which is why this whole situation blows my mind. I've been over this before, but drug tests are inconsistent, and meldonium was legal last year and can stay in a fighter's system for up to a year. That's why WADA initially said for those being tested before March this year, they would be allowed to have up to 1 microgram of meldonium in their system I believe it was, legally. But because meldonium stays in the system for an undetermined amount of time, I think they even changed that to all of 2016 now, not just up to March!

In any case, Povetkin tested before the original March deadline, and still had over 14 times less than the pre-march allowed limit! He wasn't even close to being over the limit, so why did they cancel the fight in the first place?

That's the 1st thing. But OK, someone at VADA made an honest mistake, right? Povetkin will get reinstated as mandatory, and Wilder will fight him later this year. Right? Except then Wilder hasn't mentioned him once, his whole team and the PBC broadcast keep pretending he actually got caught cheating. And now he immediately claims in the post fight press conference that he "broke his hand and strained his bicep." How the hell would you know what exact injuries you sustained in a fight before getting checked out? I could see knowing what a broken hand feels like, but being able to tell the difference between a torn bicep and some sort of ligament issue? He wouldn't be able to tell that. So it seems like someone told him to say that.

Combine with the fact Showtime signed Joshua to a three fight deal only a few weeks before Wilder-Povetkin, and Povetkin's team wouldn't give Showtime the US TV rights and indications were if Povetkin won he would have taken the belt over to HBO, and you have all the makings of politics behind the scenes being the real reason this fight was scrapped. I just don't understand how VADA went along with this? Did they simply get bamboozled by the "positive" test and all of Team Wilder's spin and pressure to immediately cancel the fight, and they forgot to actually check WADA's guidelines specific to meldonium in 2016 and see that Povetkin's "positive" test was actually legal?

It seems like someone at VADA made a big human error that allowed this fight to get canceled, an accident, a mistake, but I don't believe Team Wilder has done any of this by accident. The moment Povetkin tested for a legal amount of meldonium, they planned all of this, used reporters in the media who were helping them or just didn't know better like Dan Rafael to pressure VADA who apparently were not on top of the unique meldonium situation either, and canceled the fight. Now it's come out clearly that Povetkin's tests were legal, so what are they doing? It seems like the WBC keeps delaying reinstating Povetkin even though it's an open and shut case. They are letting Wilder delay it even more. Now they're going to wait to let Wilder present a case to them. WTF? That just spells corruption. This isn't a trial. VADA is supposed to determine whether a test is legal or not, and tell the WBC, and the WBC is supposed to accept their recommendation. What is Wilder's team going to tell the WBC that VADA can't? They don't have the tests.

It's complete bullisht. It's another delay tactic. And on top of that delay tactic, they are sending Wilder to a "specialist" now for having sustained two injuries in one fight apparently after not having sustained many in any previous fights.

It's all suspicious to me. And I don't understand it at all because Povetkin is very overrated. But maybe they are really worried about Wilder's chin after all and if Povetkin can do one thing, he can punch. I would assume Wilder's length, speed, and power would handle Povetkin easily, just like Klitschko did, but maybe they know Wilder isn't as good as people think. I never thought Wilder would be afraid of Povetkin based on Povetkin's talent, but just basing it off Wilder's actions, or his team's actions, it seems pretty obvious that's exactly what it is. I won't say Wilder is afraid, but Haymon or someone on Wilder's team does not want Wilder fighting Povetkin, or does not want Wilder fighting Povetkin in Russia, even though Russian fighters come over to the USA all the time to fight Americans with corrupt judges and referees.

It's all bullisht and boxing is suffering for it again. Like most PBC fighters or teams of fighters, Team Wilder doesn't seem to care about the sport at all, just what is in their best interest. Funny, I thought getting a career best win in what should still be an easy fight against Povetkin for a career high payday would be a win win win situation, but obviously they're not as confident about beating him. Until Wilder actually fights some top guys, I don't understand how anyone can root for him except for race favoritism. I mean I root for GGG even though he's only fought a couple top guys, and even that is frustrating, but what keeps me rooting for him is the fact he wants to fight the top guys, they just keep avoiding him. But if it was a fighter like Wilder who not only doesn't fight the top guys, but doesn't want to, actually avoids them, instead of being the one avoided like GGG, I don't see myself ever wanting to choose to root for a fighter like that because that attitude is what has ruined boxing.

I mean let's keep it real for a second. For any of us who call ourselves boxing fans, how can we rightly root for any fighter who hurts boxing? If we care about boxing, and we care about the sport surviving in the future and we care about seeing great fights and being entertained through boxing, how can we root for any fighter whose attitude, actions, or philosophy go against all those things? No matter how much we like a fighter's talent, personality, or style, we cannot root for them if they are part of the problem hurting boxing, not if we are really boxing fans. Wilder's talent is sick, his speed, combinations, and power at that wing span is something to behold. He is my style of fighter all the way. But still, I cannot root for him because I am a boxing fan, who believes the health of boxing is dependent on the best fighting the best, on entertaining well matched fights, and on champions who seek out the biggest challenges. Wilder has done none of that his whole career, almost 40 fights in, so as much as I like his style, he stands for everything that is wrong with boxing in 2016, and as long as we fans support boxers who stand for everything wrong with boxing, through our support we will continue to ruin the sport we claim to love.

Boxing promoters have always been about their own money first. No boxing promoter is going to save boxing, or fix the problems with it. Real talk, only the fans can fix boxing. Stop supporting fighters who hurt the sport. Stop criticizing fighters who do the right things, and apologizing for fighters who do the wrong things. Don't put race ahead of what's best for the sport. If boxing fans, and youtube boxing channels, spent as much time criticizing Danny Jacobs as they did criticizing GGG, boxing would be fixed by now. We the fans have that power. Stop supporting or paying to watch fighters who hurt the sport in mismatch fights. Reward the fighters who do the right things instead.

If you do this, before you know it, the fighters you really want to love, but who are hurting the sport right now, like Danny Jacobs or Deontay Wilder, will get the message and take the best fights, and then you will be able to support them again, except this time fully, for real, knowing they're actually doing the right things.

It's like a relationship man. Sometimes if someone is doing the wrong things, even though you they're still who you want to be with, you have to dump them. Then that forces them to do the right things, and when you take them back, it's better than it ever was. You still get to be with the person you want to be with, but this time it's actually good.

So maybe some fans out there just can never root for a white fighter, for example, so they feel like they will always want to be with Danny Jacobs or Deontay Wilder in terms of a fan. Fine, but do what is necessary as a fan to actually make them earn that favoritism. Stop supporting fighters like that just for a little while, because they're not doing what's right for boxing or you as a supporter of theirs, and in the end you will actually motivate them to take the real challenges, get better than they ever were before, and actually earn your support.

Even if you prefer black fighters, you don't have to choose between rooting against your preference, or continuing to support the sport being ruined. You don't. All you have to do is stop supporting some of your favored fighters for a little while, as long as they keep hurting the sport, only long enough for them to get to the message and start helping the sport.

That's all it is. We as fans need to start motivating boxers to do what's right for the sport, not keep supporting them while they hurt the sport. That's why even criticizing GGG or Kovalev isn't the worst thing in the world. It's not their fault that people are ducking them, but it tells them, if it ever is your fault, this is how fans are going to react. You better keep doing the right things.

Motivation is usually never a bad thing. But if you only criticize fighters who are already helping the sport, but never criticize fighters who are hurting it, that doesn't accomplish anything. If you want to criticize GGG to keep pressure on him to keep facing the best, that's fine, but you need to also criticize Jacobs, Wilder, Garcia, and so on twice as much because they're not even facing the best right now. And when you buy tickets to their fights in mismatches, you give them no motivation to fight anyone good.

It's like Angel Garcia says. Why fight someone good for 4 million when you can fight two bums for 2 million each and make the money with no risk at all, it maybe just takes a little longer, but it's a guarantee so who cares because you know you'll get to keep doing it again afterwards?

What Angel is telling the fans there is you need to stop supporting our fights against bums, period, you cannot buy a single ticket, so that we can no longer make 2 million to fight bums. Only once you stop giving us the support necessary for us to make money fighting bums, will it make logical sense for us to fight top guys.

It's just simple logic. As fans we should encourage the good fights, best vs best, even more than we do now. Encourage the fighters who do that as much as possible. But then when they want to fight bums, no support at all. Do not buy a single ticket. That way, there will be no motivation to fight bums, but huge motivation to fight the best, and boxing will be saved. The problem with modern boxing is so many fans have become apologists for a certain segment of boxers that they will support them no matter what. Boxing promoters have figured this out and they are using it against you now. They say to themselves, as long as a good number of black boxing fans will buy tickets to see their favorite black fighters fight no matter who they face, we can use that so we never have to risk our top black fighters against elite opposition, and so we never have to pay two good purses in his fights, only one good purse to him and then a very small purse to the TBA fighter he's facing.

They are using this against you. So as much as you want to root for the top black fighters, give them the cold shoulder for just a year to give them the message that you're with them, but you won't be used. Then once they get the message, and have the motivation to fight the top opposition again, you can go back to supporting them, and you will get way bigger fights and way more rewarding victories as a result. It will be better for you, even if you're a biased fan, and it will be better for boxing. The only hard part is you will have to get over your preferences for maybe a year of boxing and start criticizing the fighters who won't fight the best, regardless of race, instead of defending fighters who duck if they're black and aiming all your criticism at fighters like GGG who actually try to fight all the best guys in their weight divisions.

It's that simple. Are you going to do what's necessary for the next year, for the health of boxing, and still end up eating your cake too afterwards when you start getting all the great fights and you can still root for your preferred fighters, or are you just going to keep doing what feels natural without thinking about how much boxing has sucked lately with you doing that, and supporters these fighters no matter who they fight, which just leads to more and more mismatches every year and fewer and fewer good fights? Whatever your preferences, do the right thing for boxing for the next year, stop supporting mismatches at all, and every boxing fan, of every race, will be better off by next year, and so will the sport of boxing.

Did you really just write an entire essay on your conspiracy theory? Haha my goodness, are you at least getting paid? The problem with the failed drug test was mainly the fact that he tested clean then tested dirty in between. I won't even go into elaboration but that was a red flag. That's not Wilder's fault. He was overseas training for a good bit and was ready to fight until the positive test.

[The Gambler1981]

Faking an injury right after winning a fight? To not fight a guy who currently is stuck in drama and really couldn't fight if he was able to currently. So reason says that makes no sense.

A fight where Wilder didn't use his right hand very much and heavily relied on his left hand which is not how he normally fights. It was also curious how Wilder was lighting him up at the end of round 4 then totally took his foot off the gas in the 5th with is also out of character unless something was up.


Also when someone fakes an injury something like a messed up bicep is easy to diagnose and pretty apparent to the eye is not the injury of choice, a back injury which can be very non specific and hard to diagnose would the route most would take.

[joseph5620]

Lol, boxingscene conspiracy theorists!! He's faking an injury! He ducked Povetkin because the WBC postponed the fight! You guys are real beauties!!

They are beyond pathetic.

[techliam]

Utterly amazed some people think so highly of Povetkin &/or so low of Wilder. Let's not forget that probably during Povetkin's career best performances he was likely on a substance that was being watch listed and later deemed a PED. I suspect if Wilder doesn't get a bigger fight with Fury, Klitschko or Joshua that Povetkin will be considered shot on the Sunday after he fights Wilder by these same people trying to make Povetkin Tyson-like and Wilder Spinks-like right now.

You really don't need to think Povetkin is a p4p elite fighter, to think he beats Wilder. Most fighters in the top 10 of the division have a good chance of beating him.

Wilder has shown, consistently, he is a very flawed fighter. If you want to ignore the heaps of evidence, its on you

I just hope this injury isn't used as a justification to fight yet another no-hoper next. This is why PBC has such a bad image, there are very few quality matchups... with the star fighters consistently fighting sub-par opposition (Wilder, Jacobs, Stevenson, Garcia if he fights Berto next, Thurman before Porter etc). If he can't secure a unification fight, he kinda needs a Povetkin, a Pulev or a Parker to legitimise himself as a contender

[Eff Pandas]

You really don't need to think Povetkin is a p4p elite fighter, to think he beats Wilder. Most fighters in the top 10 of the division have a good chance of beating him.

Wilder has shown, consistently, he is a very flawed fighter. If you want to ignore the heaps of evidence, its on you

**** brother I'm leading the parade saying Wilder is flawed & that he'll probably have several less than impressive names on the losing side of his resume, but he's not THAT flawed &/or Povetkin isn't THAT good. Its a 50/50 fight yet some cats are acting like this is Canelo vs Khan at HW. Povetkin could EASILY get KTFO & I wouldn't blink at that result & I tend to believe thats the most likely outcome. Again doe my main point is its not some massacre for Povetkin. Povetkin gots his hands full & based on his usage of a questionable substance within his last couple fights it seems I suppose he knows that better than the people predicting he wins.

[daggum]

he didn't need any hands/arms to beat arreola last night