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It’s January of this year. Deontay Wilder stands at center ring in Las Vegas with his hand raised in victory. He is twenty-nine years old, undefeated, hard-hitting, charismatic, and now holds one of the coveted heavyweight championship belts. Added to that, he will soon have the full backing of the man who will thrust boxing back onto the major network airwaves for the first time in decades. In another time and perhaps another place, this would be the origin story of a star athlete right at the moment before he broke through into the national consciousness. However – perhaps due to the personalities involved or even just the state of the sport of boxing in the present day – Deontay Wilder’s path has led in a much different direction.

For Wilder, all that glitters has not exactly turned to gold. After the attention grabbing victory over Bermane Stiverne, even the most entrenched critics of Wilder’s soft matchmaking to that point were forced to at least start entertaining the notion that perhaps they had miscalculated Wilder’s potential. He not only was able to beat Stiverne, but he was able to do it over the course of twelve rounds and to do it while continuing to look fresh. This was a new wrinkle for a fighter who had been accused of knocking out undersized cab drivers and construction workers for much of his career to that point. At the same time as this reassessment of Wilder’s potential came his face on the airwaves of many a network by way of Al Haymon’s recently launched Premier Boxing Champions. People could suddenly see the million dollar smile of the freakishly-sized and athletic fighter on the airwaves of NBC and CBS, proclaiming that he was THE heavyweight champion of the world. Things had broken about as well as you could possibly have hoped if you were invested in the idea of setting up an American foil to the long reigning lineal heavyweight champion Wladmimir Klitschko — which makes it only all the more confusing why Haymon, PBC, and Wilder’s camp have seemingly chosen to squander all of it.

Wilder’s first title defense came on Showtime against the unheralded Eric Molina. To those who could still recall some of Al Haymon’s more troubling tendencies when it has historically come to matchmaking for his fighters (and who were not so quick to be swept up by the goodwill and optimism surrounding the new PBC venture), there were definitely some raised eyebrows and rolled eyes. However, the general sentiment still seemed to be that Wilder was entitled to a homecoming fight (the event took place in his home state of Alabama, after all) and even that perhaps a showcase for the newly-minted heavyweight belt holder wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, Wilder didn’t really hold up his end of the “showcase” bargain, as he seemingly struggled more than he should with the limited Molina. Instead of a statement making performance, Wilder mounted a relatively sloppy offense throughout much of the fight, and was even tagged with (and staggered by) some pretty clean shots, before eventually getting Molina out of there in the ninth round.

Not a great start to a title reign, to be sure – but also not the end of the world. A nice win over a solid opponent and all would be more or less forgiven, right? Once again, Haymon and team Wilder seemed to have other plans. Instead of a name opponent, tomorrow night Wilder will be stepping in to the ring to face Johann Duhaupas – and no matter what angle you approach the fight from, the choice seems to be a head scratcher. Remember that goodwill that was mentioned earlier? Well, what a difference a year makes. Suddenly, Deontay Wilder is about to turn thirty, has been showered with criticism, and has pretty much punted his 2015 campaign as a heavyweight world champion. And as much as that blame needs to rest on the fighter’s own shoulders, when you take into account the undeniable influence and power that he wields over his stable, you have to proportion at least an equal serving of blame out for Al Haymon.

Even taking into account the fractured promotional landscape of the heavyweight division, Haymon is still just about the biggest game in town. You have to believe that if he wanted to, he could find a way to match Wilder up with the likes of Alexander Povetkin or Bryant Jennings. Or maybe one of his own older guys like Steve Cunningham or Antonio Tarver would like a chance to climb into a bigger spotlight? Haymon has already shown that he can do business overseas; how about he at least starts banging the drum for a potential fight against the up-and-coming Anthony Joshua, if only to give us some light a couple years down the tunnel? Hell, even a bout against spent and battle-worn but familiar faces like Chris Arreola or Amir Mansour would be preferable alternatives to the path PBC has taken thus far. In fact – and I can’t believe I’m even going to say this – I would even vastly prefer cries of “let’s go champ” and Wilder stepping in against the badly faded Shannon Briggs to the likes of Molina and Duhaupas. At least even that utterly ridiculous fight could offer some buildup on par with their altercation at the Klitschko-Jennings weigh-in earlier this year! All of these fights would bring at least some small level of intrigue or entertainment, and would aid in the furthering of Wilder’s brand, and yet Haymon has spent the year going in another direction.

The absolute strangest thing is that this hasn’t proven to entirely be the modus operandi for Haymon and PBC. It hasn’t all been Garcia versus Salka out there. In fact, there have been multiple instances of Haymon providing solid matchups and entertaining events. Shawn Porter against Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman versus Robert Guerrero, Danny Garcia against Lamont Peterson, Leo Santa Cruz squaring off with Abner Mares – these are all examples of Haymon displaying a willingness to match two of his quality fighters against one another. So why not take that approach with Deontay Wilder? A fighter who could most definitely stand to be built up? Perhaps most ironically, Wilder is a guy who fights in a division where the talent level is deluded enough that he could probably even be matched against some recognizable names and some entertaining personalities but still at the same time be matched relatively cautiously! And yet, Haymon and team Wilder have thus far chosen to completely forgo that approach, instead essentially marching strangers in off the street to hopefully go a few rounds before collecting their modest salaries at the arena door.

I realize that there is a train of thought out there, let’s call it “the Mayweather phenomenon,” that says what makes most financial sense when developing a prospect is to stay on television as much as possible while staying just busy enough to not completely fade into obscurity while you wait for a shot at the division’s top dog and cash cow. In this case, Wladimir Klitschko. I also realize that with many a welterweight that has somehow been a successful strategy. But it simply doesn’t make sense for Wilder. For one, people (and particularly Americans) have always loved heavyweights; and there hasn’t been a young, talented, undefeated, and charismatic American heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson. Now, don’t get me wrong, Wilder is no Tyson – but in a division that has been ruled by Europeans for well over a decade, he could very well be a glass of water for the thirsty American boxing fans in this barren desert of a heavyweight landscape, if matched properly. The fact is, even as he waits for a shot at Klitschko, there is money to be made off of Wilder – potentially a lot of it – but not without developing his brand.

Speaking of development, how about the fact that Wilder probably is actually more talented than most other heavyweights! Klitschko is pushing forty and is going to need to retire eventually. Putting aside the idea of anybody actually challenging and beating Klitschko in the short term, shouldn’t Wilder’s team and Haymon be trying to develop his skills as a fighter so he can take a crack at being the top dog in the division once the Ukrainian is gone? Well, let me tell you one thing; Wilder is not going to grow fighting the likes of Molina and Duhaupas. He’s going to be running in place.

I can’t speak to the reasoning behind this extremely tender matchmaking for Deontay Wilder. I don’t know whether it’s the result of some internal pessimism about his ceiling or simply the result of bad decision making. But I can say that while Wilder’s deal with PBC and Haymon has gotten him more exposure than just about any other heavyweight out there, and it should seemingly be creating more opportunity for him than any fighter in boxing’s glamour division not-named-Klitschko – thus far, absolutely none of the capital from that exposure has been spent and none of that opportunity has come to fruition. Looking from the outside in, whatever the deal was, it seems to have been a bad one for all parties involved. And the whole situation still reeks of sulfur.

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