Heavyweight contender, Joseph Parker feels Deontay Wilder should have used more movement and mixed up his jabs in his fight against Zhilei Zhang in their match in Riyadh.
Static Style Proves Costly
The former WBC champion Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) did the opposite. Instead of moving and jabbing, he stood in front of Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs), pawing with his jab.
Wilder looked like he was copying his trainer Malik Scott’s old style of fighting, which wasn’t effective against Zhang, who took him apart in the fifth round. The 38-year-old ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder is now expected to retire.
“I feel like Wilder worked on a lot of things, but against Zhang, he has to move a lot more. Instead of parrying the punches, he has to sort of set it up. You have to jab up and jab down and show a little bit more movement, which Wilder didn’t show,” said Joseph Parker to Secondsout on what Deontay Wilder should have done to be victorious against Zhilei Zhang last Saturday night.
Wilder needed a different coach to help him prepare for this fight because he’d failed repeatedly with Malik Scott as his trainer. He was a better fighter under his former trainer, 1984 Olympic god medalist Mark Breland,
“Wilder did let his right hand go, but Zhang was able to overcome that. For me, Zhang has the bigger punch because he landed two clean shots on me and dropped me twice. But I thought Wilder would get the upper hand because Zhang’s upper body movement wasn’t the best.
In the fifth round, Wilder attempted to land a right hand while moving away from Zhang, but he was countered by a right hand that spun him. Zhang followed with another right to get the knockdown. The fight was stopped moments later after Deontay got to his feet.
Parker’s Blueprint for Victory
Parker showed how to beat Zhang last March when he used movement and changed angles to avoid getting nailed by his powerful shots.
“He [Zhang] showed that he’s very tricky with his hands, and he was able to deflect everything that was combining forwards him, and he was able to counter off of that.
“I’ll fight anyone. If Zhang wants a rematch, I’ll fight him,” said Parker when told that Zhang wants a rematch with him to avenge his twelve-round decision loss from last March. “With the training I’m doing now and how I’m preparing, I don’t care who I fight. I’ll fight anyone and everyone.”
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