Tag Archives: 45

Posted on 02/29/2020

By: Hans Themistode

It was considered the biggest fight of the decade, but it also happened to be the worst performance in the career of former WBC Heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder. 

For years, Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs)was viewed as an unstoppable force. Standing at six feet seven inches and barely cracking 200 pounds, it was hard to see why. There was nothing about Wilder from a physical standpoint that screamed intimidating. 

So just what could this scrawny young man from Alabama do? He didn’t have the boxing skills, size or pedigree to give anyone a scare. 

But then, he hit someone. 

And they didn’t get up. 

That pattern continued, and the young kid from Alabama quickly grew to become a champion. His reign on top of the world lasted over five years before it was abruptly put to an end at the hands Tyson Fury this past weekend on February 22nd, at the MGM Grand Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The loss for Wilder wasn’t entirely shocking. After all, Fury is a great fighter in his own right, but it was the fashion in which Wilder dominated that shocked everyone. Fury dropped the former champion twice before stopping him in the seventh round. 

While all eyes should be on the performance of Fury, many can’t help but wonder, just what happened to Deontay Wilder? Simply put, he looked unnerved. 

Shortly after receiving the first loss of his career, Wilder unloaded his bag of excuses on the boxing world. The former champion claimed that his pre-fight outfit was simply too much for his willowy body to handle. 

“That my uniform was way too heavy for me,” said Wilder during a recent interview. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through.”

Needless to say, no one was buying his excuses. At least, not at first. 

The explanation by Wilder seemed utterly ridiculous. At this point, there were more questions than answers. 

Why pick out an outfit that weighs so much? Did you try it on? If you did, how long did you have it on? Why didn’t you pick another costume? 

Fans around the world were simply left scratching their collective heads. It just didn’t make sense. 

Yet, to the credit of Wilder, when you pull up the tape of his fight against Fury, you could see that throughout much of the contest he did in fact seem to not have his legs underneath him. 

The tape may have aided Wilder in proving his point right about his costume weighing too much but just a few days later, the tape has worked against him. 

In an interview that took place over a year ago on the Joe Rogan podcast, Deontay Wilder revealed some of the secrets that has helped him become the fighter that he is today. However, it also revealed that the excuse that Wilder used for his poor performance against Fury was just that. An excuse.

“We do everything with rapid speed so I wear a 45 pound vest on me in all of my exercises,” said Wilder. “Everything that I do, I have that extra weight on me.”

45 pounds? Ironically enough, that is the exact weight of the costume that Wilder wore on the night that he fought Fury. 

What seemed to be an explanation for his lackluster performance on the biggest stage of his career, seems more and more likely to be nothing more than an excuse. And a poor one at that.

Posted on 06/26/2018

By: Ken Hissner

On November 5th in 1994 at the MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada, “Big” George Foreman regained the IBF and WBA Heavyweight title knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round. He was behind on point from the judges with scores of 88-83 twice and 86-85. Shortly after the fight Foreman was stripped of the WBA title for refusing to fight Tony Tucker.

One of the fighters Foreman influenced most was now 44 year old Shannon “Cannon” Briggs, 29-1, who was the last opponent in Foreman’s 81 fight career. It was thought Foreman was lucky to get by Germany’s Axel Schulz, 21-1-1, in April of 1995 and most felt he deserved the decision over Briggs losing 117-113, 116-112 and 114-114.

Briggs last fought on November 4th 2016 improving his record to 60-6-1 (53). He has been 9-0 since turning 40. He chased Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko then champion for years. He won the WBO title on November 4th 2006 stopping Siarhei “White Wolf” Liakhovich. Liakkhovich in his last bout at 42 in October of 2017 stopped Ramon “Pantera” Olivas, 14-7, of Sonora, Mexico, in the 3rd round of a scheduled 6, in Sonora, Mexico.

Former WBC Heavyweight champion Oliver “The Atomic Bull” McCall, 57-14 (37), at 49 lost his last fight in April of 2014 to Marcin “Rex” Rekowski, 13-1, over 10 rounds in Poland, in a rematch that McCall won in February. He was 15-7 after the age of 40. He won the title in September of 1994.

Fres “The Big O” Oquendo, 37-8 (24), at 45 is scheduled to fight for the WBA World title on September 29th at Cologne, Germany, when he meets champion Manuel Charr, 31-4 (17), though Oquendo hasn’t fought in four years. He lost a disputed decision to Chris Byrd in September of 2003 for his IBF World title.

Like Oquendo 45 year-old southpaw Amir “Hardcore” Mansour, 23-2-1 (16), is still chasing a title opportunity. He has won 7 minor titles and has been in the world ratings. His last fight was in November 2017 ending in a NC3 over a clash of heads against Russia’s Sergey Kuzmin, 11-0, in Moscow.

Billy “Bronco” Wright, 52-4 (43), of Las Vegas, last fought in January of 2016 at the age of 51. He hadn’t lost since 1998 to Tony Tucker. He won his last 22 fights since then of which 9 of his last 11 fights were in Bolivia. He won the WBC FECARBOX, WBO Latino and interim PABA titles.

All of these heavyweights felt they could match what George Foreman did at age 45 winning the heavyweight title.