Wilder: My Hand Fully Healed Now, Expect Quicker Szpilka KO

by David P. Greisman

Deontay Wilder worked his way up to challenging for a heavyweight title with hands that knocked out everyone he faced within the opening 12 minutes of every fight. His hands haven’t been the same since, even though he went on to capture a title belt and defend it twice.

Wilder hurt his right hand when outpointing Bermane Stiverne over 12 rounds for the World Boxing Council belt in January 2015. He returned in June to stop Eric Molina in nine rounds and then fought again in September, stopping Johann Duhaupas in 11.

He faces Artur Szpilka on Jan. 16 in a card at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and airing on Showtime. And he thinks his injury has finally fully recovered a year after it was hurt.

That, he says, is good news for him and bad news for Szpilka.

“I want to get back to my knockout days. My hand was about 85 percent when I defended my title,” Wilder said on a Jan. 6 media conference call. “Now it’s looking back as strong as ever. It’s back to 100 percent. I’m looking to go back to where I used to be — four rounds or under.”

Wilder is 35-0 with 34 KOs. Of those knockouts, 18 have come in the first round, six have come in the second round, four have come in the third round and four have come in the fourth round.

Of course, nearly all of those came against opponents who were on a much lower level. Then again, Szpilka has been down before, needing to rise from the canvas in both of his fights with Mike Mollo. Szpilka won both of those bouts by stoppage, but Mollo also isn’t anywhere near the level of Wilder. He also was down and then lost by technical knockout to Bryant Jennings in January 2014.

Szpilka is 20-1 with 15 KOs. He has won four straight since the Jennings fight.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com