Trailing (again) on all scorecards, Deontay Wilder — the most-proficient knockout puncher in heavyweight history — needed only a split-second to erase Luis Ortiz in the seventh round of their world title rematch.
Expert analysts Rizwaan Zahid and John J. Raspanti take a deep dive into the skills and flaws of a force of nature unlike any we’ve ever seen in professional boxing, and speculate on what Anthony Joshua, Andy Ruiz, and Tyson Fury might be thinking as they look forward to their own inevitable collisions with a man whose arsenal includes the ultimate “cheat code.”
They also weigh the merits of weight loss for the world’s best big men, discuss Canelo’s suspicious habit of demanding rehydration clauses for his opponents, and psychoanalyze Mayweather’s latest cry for attention — another comeback threat.
Then we interview former WBC heavyweight king Pinklon Thomas, who describes what it was like to be a heroin addict at 12, a high school dropout at 15, and a strong-armed robber who literally had a contract on his head as a teenager. All of that before he threw the first punch in a boxing career that included fights with Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Morrison, Witherspoon, Weaver, Tillis, Coetzee and Berbick.
How is this man still alive to tell his story? Honestly, he’s not sure.
Dennis Taylor is host of The Ringside Boxing Show, editor-publisher of www.ringsideboxingshow.com, and co-author (with John J. Raspanti) of “Intimate Warfare: The True Story of the Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward Boxing Trilogy,” an Amazon bestseller.
