Is Deontay Wilder Ready to Take on the Heavyweight Elites?

The uncomfortable truth about 29-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is that he’s America’s best chance to return to heavyweight glory. Not since the days of Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson has there been an American big man with so much potential.

But the more uncomfortable truth about Wilder is that despite his title belt, athleticism, power and steady improvement as a prizefighter, America appears no closer to heavyweight glory now than it did before he burst on the scene.

Because Wilder isn’t ready for elite heavyweights, and it may never matter anyway.

Here’s the problem: He looks in no way, shape or form ready to fight lineal heavyweight champion (as well as holder of all other meaningful alphabet belts) Wladimir Klitschko. As much as folks claim they despise watching Klitschko because of his robotic movements, Wilder’s ring work seems even more forced and at least as unnatural.

Against Klitschko, Wilder would have little more than a puncher’s chance.

Wilder has fought only one man he can honestly say is a legitimate contender in a division stocked full of no-hopers. Yes, Wilder’s 12-round decision win over Bermane Stiverne was impressive and an important benchmark in his career.

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At long last Wilder was in the ring with a foe who would not fall to the mat and stay put when the American punched him. Wilder had to jab his way to the win—he had to box, and so he did, snagging the WBC strap he now proudly wears in the process.

Nice work.

But since winning the belt, Wilder has faced subpar competition. His next two wins were knockouts of Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas. Neither man was ranked a top-10 contender by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board or Ring Magazine.

That isn’t to say he was wrong to take such fights. Wilder’s team knows he needs more rounds of experience if he hopes to become the elite heavyweight that America so desperately wants him to be someday.

So his team is absolutely correct in gaming the system for as long as it can to keep Wilder both with his heavyweight title belt and away from Klitschko and other elite heavyweights.

And it won’t really be that hard to do.

As bad as everyone pretends the heavyweight division is these days, it’s probably not at all as terrible as it may seem. Boxing is notorious for not appreciating what it has in front of it. Klitschko’s place among the all-time great heavyweights will solidify once he retires as if it was never a question, and there will be little mention of the era’s other contenders.

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But whatever the case may be, Wilder is decidedly not ready for a showdown with an elite heavyweight. Not yet. While he looks as if he might someday be a heavyweight champion worth remembering, the last two fights have showed he’s not quite there yet.

Can you imagine Holyfield or Tyson taking more than eight rounds to dispose of Wilder’s last two opponents?

The good news for him is there are only two elite heavyweights at the present and one more on the way.

Klitschko is obviously the king of the hill right now, but Alexander Povetkin looked as good as ever since suffering a unanimous-decision loss to Klitschko back in 2013. He’s reeled off three knockouts in a row, and while he is technically the No. 1 contender to Wilder’s WBC championship, boxing business folks have been able to negotiate out of a slew of mandatory fights that don’t fit their fighter’s best interests.

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Don’t be surprised to see Wilder’s people do the same.

But here’s the scariest part of the conundrum: Klitschko, age 39, gets older and older every single day, but undefeated U.K. prospect Anthony Joshua, age 25, is much younger and just keeps getting better and better with every new day.

Esteemed boxing writer Bart Barry of 15Rounds.com hit the nail on the head about Wilder in his recent column: “Like so many guys in this dreadful era, Wilder can attack or defend, but his transition between the two requires a hanging, empty space wherein his brain audibly changes settings.”

He’s right about Wilder, but Joshua is decidedly different. Not only does he possess impressive physical attributes and stalwart amateur credentials, but he flat-out looks like he can fight.

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All great heavyweights look the very same in a way. They all have one almost indefinable quality. They all look like they were born to fight. You can just see it in them, and Wilder doesn’t yet appear to fit that profile.

He might get there someday, but he’s not reached that point yet. Heck, he may never get there at all.

And even if he does make it, Joshua might still be better anyway.

That's the challenge Wilder’s team faces now: Does it wait for Klitschko to get old or take its chances now?

Wilder isn’t ready for elite heavyweight competition, but he might need to take his shot anyway.