Covering Boxing online for nearly five years has been a real joy. I absolutely love being exposed daily to a constant supply of boxing, a continual flow of information, news, banter, and debate.
My phone is constantly pinging with a Tweet, update, news feed notification, direct message, and now more recently (I was late with Instagram), an Instagram pic or video about the sport that I love. My day is filled with boxing information and news from the second my eyes open, and this is heaven.
I used to partake in silly activities like listening to actual music in my headphones, since I discovered the rich pool of boxing podcasts / youtube channels and so forth, I’m far more likely to be listening to an online boxing badio show then my beloved rap.
There’s a downside to online boxing though, the over abundance of pessimists…
The only negative to come alongside all of the above, especially prising and tugging apart the sport on an often surgical, cold and clinical level, for analysis for my YouTube channel, the negative is, you’re not really allowed to dream anymore.
The instant access to so much information to freely gorge on like gannets, at the press of a smartphone touch screen has birthed a slew of online fight experts, naysayers, and the worst, negative Nancy’s. The perceived knowledge they have ingested has bloated them with such self importance, to enjoy the basics like a hard punching heavyweight who’s loud and entertaining is almost forbidden, perhaps something a “casual fan” would do.
When I watched boxing as a teen (before the internet) I knew nothing of the politics that muddied it or of the cynicism and the begrudgers. I allowed myself to become the moment, be engulfed in the hype of the fighter. I gave myself express permission to enjoy that forbidden emotion among the boxing heads of today, especially those who gravitate to the online sphere – I let myself get excited about fighters.
Deontay Wilder is a fighter that I speak to boxing fans daily about and the initial excitement most boxing fans had for Wilder has been quashed by those opposed to him and everything he represents. They are the type you will discover rarely share any optimism or excitement for the sport when you pry a little deeper into their psyche.
They will tell you they like boxing but they seem to prefer disliking it and appearing aloof. I find a lot of the people who don’t like Wilder tend to be the types who complain about how every match up in boxing is a fix, crap, and or corrupt. They will tell you the sport is dying. Deontay Wilder haters tend to be in my opinion boxing pessimists and are not happy with the sport unless there’s something for them to complain about within it.
For the Deontay Wilder vs. Bermaine Stiverne fight I am unashamedly becoming a fan for this one. I miss that feeling of abandon and excitement, not having to analyse to death every punch, previous fight, and foot positioning of a fighter in an attempt to predict the outcome of a boxing match (which is mostly educated guesses on everyone’s part).
Wilder is great for the sport, he is loud, brash, and engaging. His style of fighting is explosive, shocking, and captivating. When I watched a young Tyson rise up the ranks as a teen, I didn’t look at the level of opponents he faced as he smashed through them leaving bodies flying in all directions like a bowling ball crashing pins into orbit. I just marveled at the moment, stood in awe of the power and crucially. I had fun watching my sport.
When asked if he would be able to take Wilder’s punch, the likable and honest Stiverne said in an interview on a podcast, “This is heavyweight boxing anything can happen.” How true that is. In a conference call Wilder called this fight 50/50. They both know the ever present dangers in a fight of this type, primarily power.
Very few if any predicted Sergey Kovalev would out box, not knock out, but actually out think, out position and display superior boxing skills to Bernard Hopkins. Very few predicted Miguel Cotto to destroy Sergio Martinez so convincingly and in such a dominant fashion, even when we were aware of Martinez’s persistent knee issues.
Taking all the above into account, it’s not beyond any realm of belief that the talented and crafty Stiverne could get caught with something early, within the first four or five rounds and completely fold like Naan bread when it’s discovered that the much spoken about Wilder power is real, which I personally think it is.
Am I 100% certain Wilder will win the Stiverne fight? In the words of Stiverne himself, this is heavyweight boxing, anything can happen. How can I be when the talent level of both is as respectable as it is? There’s something about Wilder though that inspires something within me as a fan. That’s why he’s my choice for victor here at the time of writing this, by first half KO. I think Wilder is for real.
Critics of Wilder’s opponents, as I repeat to them every time like a parrot on queue, no one else has beaten Wilder’s opponents in the manner that he has, regardless of their level of skill. Why have their other opponents not dispatched of them so clinically in the same fashion, as early?
In Stiverne’s corner, he has a very quick jab and a highly intelligent boxing brain. He holds the type of power that only precise countering and accuracy of stance and positioning gives birth to. He now sports two recent fights with a genuine hard hitting contender, who he has taken apart both times. This is a real fight.
I like Stiverne, I appreciate his story and it seems he hasn’t been as embraced by the American media as he should have been, possibly and unfairly due to his Haitian roots. Imagine the thought of Wilder standing face to face with Wladimir Klitschko. That pre fight build up, the hopes and dreams of American heavyweight fans on his back, the insurmountable uphill battle Wilder would face in that fight but the distinct possibility that he might, just maybeland that shot to shudder Wladimir’s knees, as Pulev did in the first round. The elation, the surprise, the dust covered boxing historians, and holier than though analysts having to concede, they were all wrong.
Picture it, the new face at the top of the heavyweight landscape restored. While I consider Wladimir Klitschko to rightfully be the absolute supreme heavyweight, let’s not get it twisted, and as I expressed in a blog on my website, my boxing analyst brain tells me that no one fighting right now beats him. You know what though, if Wilder was to get past Stiverne, who it seems is the boxing purists favorite in the fight, the unchained fan within me, that teenager who used to watch Tyson, the one who could watch fights without having to publicly pick an outcome…that person within me would go for Wilder, just for the event and because I think Deontay Wilder is what the sport needs right now. The time is right.
And also, yes, because I think he has a shot, a real one.
January 17th first, allow yourself to enjoy the sport again and join us when the bandwagon gates for Wilder are opened by myself. Its ok, we’ll accept you. The blind will see Deontay Wilder.
© Wingy 2015
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