Artur Szpilka Ready to Blaze the Trail for Polish Boxers in Deontay Wilder Fight

Don’t be surprised if Artur Szpilka defeats Deontay Wilder at Barclays Center on Saturday night in Showtime Championship Boxing's main event to become the WBC world heavyweight champion. Szpilka, age 26, isn’t the same fighter who was run over by Bryant Jennings just two years ago. He’s now a leaner, meaner and better-trained destroyer than ever, and he’s as live as underdogs come in the sport.

Szpilka is one tough dude. At age 15, he was a renowned Polish soccer hooligan. What’s that exactly? Apparently across the pond in Poland, fans of rival soccer clubs schedule street fights against each other before their teams take the field. It was there he was first recognized by former trainer Fiodor Lapin as a potential world-class boxer.

He went on to become a stalwart amateur boxer and one of Poland’s best hopes for professional prizefighting glory.

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Against Jennings, Szpilka had a chance to make good on it. Both fighters were undefeated, going into the fight with a potential championship bout looming on the horizon for the winner.

Szpilka showed courage against Jennings, but he was outgunned in a 10th-round knockout. Professional prizefighting becomes less about will and more about skill the further one climbs up the championship ladder. Despite Szpilka’s bevvy of amateur experience, Jennings just had too much for him to handle that night. The American had more skills.

After bouncing back from his first loss with a unanimous-decision win over former cruiserweight champion and former light heavyweight titleholder Tomasz Adamek, Szpilka made a change and relocated to Texas in order to train with Ronnie Shields at the Houston-based Plex Boxing Gym.

Since making the move to the Lone Star State, Szpilka has become a beacon of hard work and determination in both implementing new boxing techniques with Shields as well as honing his already impressive physical attributes with strength and conditioning guru Danny Arnold.

He’s at the gym constantly. He stays in shape and ready to fight between every single fight date.

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 Szpilka is a man determined to make history.

“This is the most important part of this fight for me, not even to become a world champion,” said Szpilka via a recent media conference call. “It’s not about that. It's about to be part of the history; becoming the first Polish heavyweight champion; to be the one when, even after I'm going to be dead, people are going to say, oh, this was the Szpilka guy, the guy who was the first Polish heavyweight champion.”

While there have been a good number of solid Polish heavyweight contenders over the years, there has yet to be one to capture at least one of the four major boxing titles. So a win over Wilder would garner Szpilka something that could never be taken away from him. There’s only one first at anything, and he’d be the first Polish champ of the heavyweight division.

Szpilka’s team has been hoping for a shot against Wilder since the hitter first signed to train under Shields last year. “The Pin,” as he is referred to by fans, bided his time knocking out lightly regarded journeymen. Hardly anyone probably thought they were worth his time.

But Szpilka’s ability as a fighter has improved greatly over his last three fights. It was time well spent. His footwork has steadily become sharper, and he appears to have reached his physical peak.

Under the tutelage of Szpilka’s previous team, he was limited to jabs, crosses and hooks. Under Shields, Szpilka has added vicious uppercuts to the mix and has also learned the value of not taking every punch on the chin. After all, fighters should never go out of their way to prove how tough they are. Those chances come along naturally.

I ran into Szpilka over the weekend at a Whole Foods grocery store. He was beaming with happiness and carrying a small red basket of lean meat and colorful vegetables. He had so much energy, it seemed, and he was practically bouncing around on his toes. As he blazed by, he assured me that he would return to Houston the WBC world heavyweight champion.

Speaking to a cadre of boxing writers on a telephone call earlier this week, Szpilka spoke with the confidence of a man who knew he could win.

“Everything is done. Everything is prepared. Right now, it's just waiting. So we're going to find out who is who on January 16.”

Szpilka believes he already knows the answer to that. He thinks he’s the man destined to become the first Polish heavyweight champion, and stranger things have happened in our sport.

There were probably fewer confident in Tyson Fury’s chances against longtime-lineal heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on Nov. 28 than those who think Szpilka will beat Wilder. Even fewer thought Deontay Wilder would struggle as much as he has in recent outings against no-hope opposition.

Szpilka has a decent chance at making his dream come true.

Unless otherwise noted, all information and quotes were obtained firsthand.