After the fight: Deontay Wilder punches his way to a title shot

After the fight: Who is next in line for Deontay Wilder after that huge one-punch knockout over Robert Helenius?

One of the most explosive punchers of our time, Deontay Wilder (43-2-1), sent the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, into a frenzy on Saturday night when he knocked out Robert Helenius (31-4) with just one punch. It wasn’t something he hadn’t done before, but boxing fans will never get tired of seeing it and will have similar reactions each time.

Wilder is the type of fighter that has used that iron fist of a right hand to knockdown and, often, knockout his opponents. Even in defeat against Fury, he made things interesting by knocking down the WBC Champion in two of their three fights. Both purists and casual fans come to a Wilder fight expecting that, so during the fight with Helenius, many insiders felt it wasn’t a matter of if but when. The interesting part of the knockout was that it came from a punch as Wilder was on his back foot. Wilder has been known to be defensively vulnerable when backing up, but he was able to use that to create the knockout. Helenius was down on the canvas for a while and was slowly helped up once the fight was over.

During the post-fight press conference, Wilder had a moment where he broke down as he mentioned Prichard Colon, a fighter who suffered critical damage to his brain after a fight and is now having to be helped with everything on a day-to-day basis. Wilder said, “And we’ve seen what happened. Look at Colon, Prichard Colon. This man didn’t have any kids. Ya don’t f$%king understand what we go through. And I don’t even know him like that, but I’ll always be an advocate for us. This man will never know what it feels like to be somebody’s father. That’s the most precious thing in the world to be somebody’s father. But he’ll never be anybody’s father, man. This man will never have the natural ability of living again because he got in the ring to support his family. Now his family have gotta take care of him for the rest of his life.”

Deontay Wilder is back after a brutal one punch knockout over Robert Helenius.

It’s clear that after experiencing things both in and out of the ring throughout the years, his perspective on things and his outlook on life have changed. Wilder is right; unless you are in there fighting, you don’t know what they are going through, and the same can be said about other occupations requiring you to risk your life. Wilder expressing his emotions for the world to see is important, especially when we have seen an increase in mental health cases.

With such a statement victory, what’s next on the horizon for Wilder? During his in-ring post-fight interview, Wilder said, “I’ve been hearing rumors about (unified heavyweight champion) Oleksandr Usyk, but he’s not here, is he?” said Wilder. “When guys see these knockouts, they turn the corner away from me. I’m ready for whatever. Whether it’s Andy Ruiz Jr. or Usyk, I’m ready. Deontay is back, and the excitement in the heavyweight division is back.”

Although Usyk sounds like a mouth-watering matchup, I don’t see that fight getting made next since there are options under the PBC umbrella. The next fight for Wilder looks to be former unified champion Ruiz Jr. That fight has been discussed for some time now, and with Ruiz Jr. beating Luis Oritz and Wilder victorious, it looks like these two are headed for a huge fight.

Although Wilder vs. Usyk can be made later down the road, I think it’s the Ruiz Jr. fight first, and if all goes well with that, either the unified champ or, if the pot of money is big enough, Anthony Joshua. The Joshua fight is still heavily desired across the pond and one that would do big business. Regardless of who Wilder fights next, fans and causals will be tuning in because they know one thing: at some point, the iron fist will land, sending shockwaves throughout the arena.