The Tuscaloosa crowd hung on his every move. Deontay Wilder, the heavyweight boxer and hometown hero, circled his Jamaican opponent Owen Beck, hoping to give the crowd a show.
They cringed when he got hit, but more often they cheered when he landed one of his ferocious punches, and after three rounds, Beck had had enough.
Wilder defeated Beck in a three-round technical knockout to improve his record to 23-0 and did so in front of his home fans at the Killer Buzz Arena in the McFarland Mall on Saturday night. The air conditioning wasn’t turned on, but the fans, all too used to the Alabama summer heat, braved the muggy conditions and witnessed Wilder deliver his 23rd knockout of his professional career.
“It’s no greater feeling than fighting at home,” Wilder said. “Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this is where my heart is.” In the first round, the two boxers felt each other out, both landing a few punches, and Wilder finished it, knocking Beck down with a quick strike to his face. The fury only grew in the second round as Beck was knocked down twice more. Wilder is known for his vicious right hook, but his left jab was more than enough for the overmatched Beck.
“I want to be an all around boxer. Everybody knows I’ve got the right hand – I’ve proved that many times,” Wilder said. “I want to show them a little bit more, so I wasn’t focused on the right hand. I wanted to show them the jab. I always had it.”
In the third, after another knockdown, Wilder cornered his opponent and threw the decisive blow that cut Beck above his left eye. Beck’s staff determined the wound to be too much to continue, and the fight was called after three rounds.
The Tuscaloosa crowd got what they came for.
“When I hit him, I saw it immediately,” Wilder said of the cut.
He said his next fight will be some time at the end of July – either July 25 in Biloxi, Miss. or July 24 on HBO’s “After Dark.” Wilder’s plan is to keep fighting and hopefully get a chance to get into the Top 10. From there, he hopes to get a shot at the heavyweight championship of the world by this time next year.
The knock on Wilder has always been the level of competition he’s faced. He has 23 knockouts, but none have come against particularly challenging competition – Beck was probably his biggest challenge yet.
But Wilder and his trainers stressed the importance of patience, allowing him to develop at the right pace and not rush into things too quickly.
“Everybody wants an American heavyweight,” he said. “A lot of people have been impatient as far as my career and who I’m fighting and all this. But we’ve got a game plan, and we’re sticking with it. And it’s gonna be great when I get that belt and bring it back to Tuscaloosa, Ala. – something this city has never seen.”
The city had yet another reason to cheer on Saturday night took yet another step up in the ranks of boxing – a sport that only recently got a professional commission in the state of Alabama. Wilder made it clear what he wants his role to be in what’s now known as Title Town.
“The Knockout King,” he said. “That’s what I do.”
