By Tom Donelson (BWAA) Member Boxing Writers Association of America

Between 2015 and 2020 Deontay Wilder won 9 championship bouts all by knockout and had Tyson Fury not gotten off the canvas from their first fight, Wilder era may have lasted even longer but this  past June first, the Wilder era is officially over. Zhilei Zhang  wiped out Wilder in the fifth round with a vicious right.  This was not much of a fight as Zhang landed twice as many punches and was the more accurate puncher as he connected on 45 percent of his punches.

In this fight Wilder was the younger fighter at 38 as Zhang was 41 years old but Zhang was the better technical fighter  That was the rub for Wilder depended on his right hand which was one of the more powerful right hands in heavyweight history, but he never learned the basic boxing skills.  There were fights that he ended with his right hand but was outboxed.  He depended on his power and never learned the basics.  At the end of his career, he found himself against superior technicians like Parker and Fury.  Fury was the superior boxer, and he had the power to stop Wilder.  Parker boxing skills gave Wilder trouble and Zhang more technical skills. He lost four of his last five fights and they were not close events.  Wilder could have been a great fighter if he learned those basic skills of boxing instead of depending on his own right hand but as it was, he was a champion with a belt and he won his share of fights.  A good career if he chose retirement.

Meanwhile, Dan Dubois defeated Filip Hrgovic and ended the Croatian undefeated streak with an 8^th round stoppage. Dubois cut  Hrgovic’s right eye in the second round and a few rounds later, the left eye was cut.  Hrgovic landed several right hands in the first and in the second round but suffered his first cut by a Dubois punch.  As the fight progressed Dubois wore Hrgovic down and over the 7^th and 8^th round, Dubois landed 32 punches to only 5 by Hrgovic before the referee stopped the fight due to the cuts. Dubois won what is now called the interim IBF championships and will fight Anthony Joshua next. 

Meanwhile, Dmitry Bivol easily beat Malik Zinad in the 6^th round to maintain his light heavyweight title bout.  He landed nearly double the punches of Zinad and this proved to be a good sparring  session and tune up for the real light heavyweight bout everyone wants to see, Bivol versus the power slugging Artur Beterbiev.  Originally Beterbiev and Bivol were scheduled to fight but Beterbiev ruptured his meniscus, so Libya’s Zinad put his undefeated record on the line in his first title bout, but Bivol put a loss on that record.