It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When original Deontay Wilder opponent Luis Ortiz dropped out, however, the weakness of the whole card was exposed a bit. Saturday’s main event now features a pointless rematch that no one wants to see and it is supported by two probable mismatches. Oh, what could have been if only Ortiz had stayed clean.
WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) was not a particularly prominent amateur when he surprisingly won Olympic bronze in 2008 despite his lack of experience. That medal win catapulted The Bronze Bomber into his professional career with some hype, but wisely his team took a long time before he was matched at all difficult. His slow progression was often derided, but Wilder needed both a ton of polish to his craft and to physically come into his body to be a true heavyweight. With the always helpful aid of hindsight, team Wilder developed properly.
While he had fought a couple faded names by that point, Wilder’s January of 2015 title shot against Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) was seen as a really big step up. After all, Stiverne was coming off two dominant performances against popular heavyweight Chris Arreola while the challenger had fought no solid opposition. It didn’t matter though. Deontay Wilder dominated that fight from start to finish, though it should be noted that Stiverne became the first and remains the only main to survive to the finish against the power punching Alabama native.
Since that night Wilder has steadily defended his title against good, but not necessarily top competition. Twice he has tried to step up, but first Alexander Povetkin and then Luis Ortiz failed drug tests and resulted in their fights being canceled. Stiverne has done even less. The Haitian heavyweight fought again in November of 2015 and there struggled to win a competitive bout over pure journeyman Derric Rossy. Then, nothing. Somehow being dominated by Wilder and then barely winning a lower level fight qualified Stiverne to be named the WBC mandatory challenger.
I wish I had some sort of boxing politics explanation for why this was the case, but I don’t. The sanctioning bodies don’t care about promotional alignment. They do care about money, however, so draw your own conclusions. I am not going to make any dangerous accusations here, but Bermane Stiverne certainly didn’t earn this spot on in ring merit.
Wilder is going to dominate this fight again as Stiverne has been inactive and looked like a regressed fighter the last time he did manage to get into the ring. I guess the question then becomes whether or not Wilder can find a finish this time. I suspect he will, but it isn’t exactly a compelling hook to pull people in.
In the co-main event, former titleholder Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) meets Adrian Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs) in the best fight of the night. Granados is a real good fighter. All five of his losses and his draw could have broken his way with completely reasonable judging. None of them were robberies, exactly, but more close fights that he just keeps getting unlucky in again and again. All seven of them. This has included fights with Felix Diaz, Kermit Cintron, Adrien Broner, and more.
This means we have a handy mark by which to measure Granados’s ability. We know he has basically been these fighters’ equal. That makes him good, but it also presents a problem for him here. Shawn Porter is clearly better than them all and by a solid margin. “Showtime” Shawn is a real elite welterweight. He has defeated Paulie Malignaggi, Adrien Broner, and Andre Berto with some ease. Porter has proven himself basically the equal of Keith Thurman and Kell Brook in close fights, not Kermit Cintron and Felix Diaz.
Here we seem to have a good fighter in with an elite one. For once, I don’t suspect Adrian Granados will end up in a competitive scored fight. If the same Shawn Porter shows up that has been, this fight is likely to be barely any more competitive than the main event. I like Porter’s odds of becoming the first to stop Adrian Granados come Saturday night.
Opening the show is our biggest mismatch yet on paper. Elite Russian junior welterweight prospect Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KOs) will be getting his first crack at a world title thanks to Terence Crawford vacating his belts to move up. The IBF title will be on the line when Lipinets meets Akihiro Kondo (29-6-1, 16 KOs) of Japan. Why is Kondo here? I don’t know. He has struggled and lost again and again at the top of the Japanese domestic scene. At the flyweights, sure, that is no black mark, but that scene is real weak up at junior welterweight. Lipenets talent plus Kondo’s resume equals a likely showcase smashing for the Russian almost certainly soon to be titleholder.
One redeeming facet of this card could be the fight between American heavyweights Dominic Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs) and Eric Molina (26-4, 19 KOs). Both of these guys are limited fighters who have been dominated at the absolute top level of the division, but both of their limitations are defensive and mobility related. Of course they are heavyweights and this could always be a random stinker, but on paper this looks like a real slugfest at the highest weight in the sport. The problem here is that this fight was announced as a Showtime Extreme fight, but it isn’t on their website as such. Maybe their site is wrong, maybe it will be a Facebook/Youtube stream like they’ve done before, or maybe we aren’t actually getting it at all. At this point I am unsure.
The main card begins Saturday night at 9 PM Eastern on Showtime, at least. I will be there watching because I run a boxing website. What is your excuse?
