Deontay Wilder Will Call FOX Fights From Ringside Saturday Night

[Ruthless-RKO]

Deontay Wilder will get an up-close look at a potential opponent Saturday night.

BS.com has learned that the WBC heavyweight champion has agreed to join FOX’s broadcast team for the network’s tripleheader from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The 12-main event will feature a veteran heavyweight Wilder already has knocked out, Chris Arreola, and another, Adam Kownacki, that Wilder could encounter sometime in 2020 at Barclays Center.

Wilder will join former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and blow-by-blow announcer Kenny Albert at ringside.

Wilder will fill in for Joe Goossen as part of FOX’s broadcast team. Goossen is Arreola’s trainer.

Unlike the Manny Pacquiao-Keith Thurman/Caleb Plant-Mike Lee event July 20 in Las Vegas, Goossen will not pull double duty for FOX’s three-bout broadcast Saturday night.

Wilder was part of FOX’s broadcast team July 20 as well, but he offered his analysis from an event desk inside MGM Grand Garden Arena. The unbeaten knockout artist didn’t call fights from ringside that night.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kick starting his commentating career..

[Finkel]

He already has experience of colour commentary from the Klitchko-Joshua fight

He came across really well.

Not sure his insights were particularly, shall we say, insightful, though

[Ruthless-RKO]

He already has experience of colour commentary from the Klitchko-Joshua fight

He came across really well.

Not sure his insights were particularly, shall we say, insightful, though

I know he has done it before. He’s s good talker. Filling in for Goosen here.

[Onetimeonly]

He's insightful, either of these blobs need very little evaluation.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Goosen was terrible during the pacman fight. Wilder cant be worse

[KiwiRider]

[tennessee]

Wilder even got ko power in his commentary. Fans feel like they got tko'd.

[Best Coast]

Wilder did a great job tonight. He works especially well with Lennox and Kenny Albert works well with both of them. I could actually see a decent future for Deontay as a commentator. I like Wilder better behind the mic than either Joe Goossen or Chris Myers who has done past fights for PBC on Fox.

[margaret thatcher]

Wilder did a great job tonight. He works especially well with Lennox and Kenny Albert works well with both of them. I could actually see a decent future for Deontay as a commentator. I like Wilder better behind the mic than either Joe Goossen or Chris Myers who has done past fights for PBC on Fox.

Disagree, I thought he was pretty bad. He likes to speak and has personality, but for this role doesn't really put his words together well. I think for PBC guys Porter and Jacobs (well formerly PBC) were a lot better. Wilder is more suited at this point for like they had him on the Pac card where they would go to him and Mancini just for short bits.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Wilder did a great job tonight. He works especially well with Lennox and Kenny Albert works well with both of them. I could actually see a decent future for Deontay as a commentator. I like Wilder better behind the mic than either Joe Goossen or Chris Myers who has done past fights for PBC on Fox.

Disagree, I thought he was pretty bad. He likes to speak and has personality, but for this role doesn't really put his words together well. I think for PBC guys Porter and Jacobs (well formerly PBC) were a lot better. Wilder is more suited at this point for like they had him on the Pac card where they would go to him and Mancini just for short bits.

As a pundit? He’s definitely good as a pundit.

[sugarrui]

Were we watching the same fighter commentating last night? Wilder was absolutely terrible -- perhaps the only reason why he wasn't as bad as people think is because he had Lennox "War of Nutrition" Lewis sitting next to him.

I get what PBC is trying to do -- they're really trying to push some of their biggest stars (Wilder, Charlo twins, Spence, Tank) and get them more exposure to the US public. That's why the Pac/Thurman card was about one hour too long -- because they have to get all their stars at least 5-10 minutes of air time after every single fight rather than just move along to the next bout.

Back to Wilder -- you can tell he has a great, electric personality and is good on the mic in the context of giving interview soundbytes and whatnot. But he offered barely any expert analysis last night. He just isn't eloquent enough like a Roy Jones or a Malignaggi to be doing expert analysis.

If you're an NBA fan, you might've recently heard that they eliminated their "Players Only" broadcasts after much criticism from fans. Why is this you may ask? It's because as it turns out, if you're not very good at expert analysis commentary, then the broadcasts consist mainly of telling anecdotes, saying "OOOH" or "MAN!", or just speaking empty words throughout the night.

As an example, this is a few seconds of an NBA "Players Only" broadcast:



And this is an example of a commentating crew that actually knows what they're doing:



Last night's broadcast definitely reminded me of the former rather than the latter. Two boxers on the commentating team can work (I like Tim Bradley and Andre Ward on ESPN when they're commentating at the same time). But with the case of Wilder and Lewis, it's like a competition for who can be worse on the mic.

[Onetimeonly]

I found it funny that wilder continually said most definitely working with the man that used to constantly say definitely.

[Ilya Muromets]

I just shut the sound off for most of the fight.

[Bandog]

Wilder can be irritating, for sure. I like Paulie M as commentator better than all of the.

[Onetimeonly]

The problem with Paulie is he would have scored wlad/Byrd for Byrd.

[Enlightened-One]

Deontay Wilder is novice in at performing media roles, such as being a boxing commentator or analyst. He’s at the beginning of a rather steep learning curve and will inevitably improve over time.

‘The Bronze Bomber’ has potential, as he can be very eloquent at times.

[marvelous marv]

The current boxer who has the most potential to do excellent announcing work is chris algieri. He did some mma commenting during his break from boxing. Extremely intelligent, well spoken and insightful.

[Tantum]

Kevin Kelley puts them all to shame.

[Best Coast]

Deontay Wilder is novice in at performing media roles, such as being a boxing commentator or analyst. He’s at the beginning of a rather steep learning curve and will inevitably improve over time.

‘The Bronze Bomber’ has potential, as he can be very eloquent at times.

I agree completely. For a guy with little commentating experience, he has been doing well so far and should improve as he gains more experience behind the mic.

[margaret thatcher]

Deontay Wilder is novice in at performing media roles, such as being a boxing commentator or analyst. He’s at the beginning of a rather steep learning curve and will inevitably improve over time.

‘The Bronze Bomber’ has potential, as he can be very eloquent at times.

I agree completely. For a guy with little commentating experience, he has been doing well so far and should improve as he gains more experience behind the mic.

Just curious, what did you find 'great' about his commentary, for it to not merely be solid or good, but already great?