By Luke Furman
Polish contender Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) is a little over two weeks away from the fight of his life, when he returns on January 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Szpilka is part of the televised main event, when he faces dangerous puncher Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) for the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship.
Szpilka, now trained by Ronnie Shields, is getting good work from Eric Molina, who fought Wilder has June. Molina was selected for Wilder's first title defense after capturing the belt in January from Bermane Stiverne. He had Wilder in some trouble during the contest after wobbling him with a big counter. The champion was able to overcome the moment and eventually stopped Molina in the ninth round.
"I have had some really good sparring with Eric Molina. Both of our trainers are impressed by what I can do and they tell me that if I box in the same way [when I face Wilder] as I'm doing in training - I should overcome Wilder. Molina is giving me some really good sparring....though he boxes a little different, a little wiser than Wilder," Szpilka said.
The training is the toughest of Szpilka's career. The boxer made a lot of changes after his TKO defeat to Bryant Jennings in early 2014. He was able to land the big shot after Wilder's original opponent, Czar Glazkov, withdrew from negotiations to pursue an IBF title fight with Charles Martin.
"I'm tired after hard training, but I have a great diet and I get up at six in the morning to eat the first meal. We start quite early, because the training already beings at nine in the morning. I train hard and everything around seems to be beautiful. I realize that I can do something extraordinary and I am already looking forward to the day of the fight," Szpilka said.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.