by Zachary Harmuth
My dad taught me not to get into fights.
But he also said that if I got into a fight, I dang well better win.
Deontay Wilder, who had his first defense of his heavyweight title last Saturday, a week before Father’s Day, must have heard something similar.
The 29-year old champion of the world and father of four remained professionally undefeated (34-0, 33 KOs), taking down challenger Eric Molina in the ninth round in Birmingham’s Bartow Arena.
Wilder and his warhammer of a right hand knocked underdog Molina (23-3, 17 Kos) down four times; but Molina could only get back up after the first three.
In the first championship boxing match in the state of Alabama, Wilder, who grew up nearby dreaming of playing for the Crimson Tide, rolled over Molina with a hard counter right with 1:03 left in the ninth round. Molina went down.
Referee Jack Reiss saw the truth of things and called Wilder the winner without ever bothering to start the count.
Wilder raised his arms.
Molina did nothing, unconscious on the canvas.
Wilder, who has only had two fighters take him past the third round in his nine-year career, held a large points margin over Molina going into the final round. He approached his opponent and this fight with more caution than seen from him in the past, because of the notorious counter-attacking style of Molina and because he was testing a right hand stress-fractured in January.
Wilder, who in Las Vegas in January won his WBC belt from Bermane Stiverne but hurt his hand, felt Molina out and even got in trouble a few times.
“I wanted to test my right hand,” Wilder said. “I got some shots in, and it held up pretty good.”
“We like to think in the ring and don’t like to rush in,” Wilder said. “I was calm, cool and collected, and as you could see I tried to think with my shots. That’s what it’s all about. I used to be wild because of my last name Wilder, but right now we are just trying to be a technician.”
The 6-foot-7, 229-pound right-hander knocked Molina down in the fourth round with a vicious uppercut. Then twice more in the fifth, and the fight looked all but over. But Molina kept coming, going to the body and throwing wild punches. But destiny, going by Deontay Wilder, could not be denied.
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Punches
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Wilder
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Molina
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Landed
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141
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49
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Thrown
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303
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188
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Percent
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47%
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26%
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— Courtesy of CompuBox
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Boxing Comes To Alabama…
In the first heavyweight boxing match ever in Alabama, the native son Wilder gave his state a wonderful early Father’s Day gift. More than one, if he has anything to say about it.
He has vowed to bring the world of boxing to Alabama. Wladimir Klitschko, of course, has to be next. Klitschko has been widely recognized as the real world champion since 2009. When Wilder inevitably meets Klitschko, he plans to do it near home.
This improbable locale has everything to do with the improbable champion.
Wilder only began boxing at the age of 20, as the responsibilities of being a young father forced him to drop out of college and give up his childhood dream of playing college football in Alabama.
That dream came to an end with the birth of his daughter Naieya on March 20, 2005, born with spina bifida, a birth defect of the spinal column that is often debilitating.
Being a Dad Bigger Than Football …
(The following is an excerpt of an article from Bleacher Report)
Wilder, then 19 years old, didn’t know Naieya would defy the odds at every turn, breathing on her own when it was thought she would need a ventilator and abandoning her walker for a gymnastics class. What he saw were the stacks of medical bills and a child small enough she could very nearly fit in the palm of his massive hand.
A series of jobs followed. Red Lobster. Driver for the Greene Beverage Company. Anything to support his young family, including dropping out of Shelton State, a junior college where he was getting his academic life in order for an eventual transfer to Nick Saban’s University of Alabama.
But Wilder dreamed of something bigger than an ordinary life. He seemed destined for it. And, while football and basketball seemed out of the picture, a brainstorming session with a friend landed squarely on boxing as a potential avenue to life-changing riches.
He fought his way onto the 2008 USA Olympic team, and distinguished himself. Before winning the Olympic trials to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Wilder had only 20 amateur fights to his credit. He went on to win a bronze medal, the only American to step on the medal stand that year. Even today, well into an undefeated professional career, he’s only boxed 70 rounds, averaging less than three per contest. The idea is for Wilder to fight in his home state regularly, taking a page out of super lightweight Terence Crawford’s playbook.
