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Michael Collins: Heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s) takes the next step in his career on Saturday night against a very good heavyweight in unbeaten Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KO’s) for the Vacant WBC Continental Americas title in a fight televised by Showtime on the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The late Emanuel Steward was very high on the 6’7” Wilder before Steward passed away, and he saw the 27-year-old as the number #1 heavyweight in the United States, and the heavyweight prospect with the best chance of winning a world title.
That says a lot about Wilder because there are a lot of good young heavyweights out there like David Price and Tyson Fury, and Wilder has been kind of hidden away compared to those press and the hype those guys have received.
Wilder is facing a tall fighter on Saturday in 6’7” Price. Wilder has been accustomed to being the much bigger guy in his fights, but that won’t be the case when he faces Price. He’ll have someone looking him straight in the eye and it’s going to be a real test of Wilder to see how he responds in a fight like this.
Wilder recently worked as a sparring partner for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and he really did a good job with Wladimir and impressed him a great deal with his ability. Wilder become Wladimir’s #1 sparring partner in the camp and he picked up some skills that he’ll be able to use on Saturday night against Price.
It’s likely going to be a game of cat and mouse on Saturday because Wilder has a defensive fighter in Price, who doesn’t like to get hit. He’ll back away all night long to keep from getting hit by Wilder. It’s going to take for Wilder to be aggressive to get Price out of there because he likes to move a lot to keep from getting hit, and he’s got that good size going for him.
