These are desperate days for heavyweight boxing.

Hours ago, Deontay Wilder defended his WBC crown by producing the sort of performance that would have inspired, rather than terrified, his rivals. He stopped Eric Molina, a rugged, earnest fighter, but hopelessly out of his depth, in nine rounds in Alabama.

Molina was hand-picked for Wilder to put on a show in his back yard, but it was a show pock-marked by hesitancy and poor form. Wilder has a monster right hand, but he seemed strangely disinterested in pulling the trigger against a man who was there to be hit.

Wilder rose through the ranks on a ticket of being flash and formidable, but for a man with claims to being the best in the division, he has many weaknesses. In the third he was heavily clocked and in some trouble – questions have long existed about his chin – and his inability to nail a B-grade heavyweight would have encouraged his rivals.

Chief among these is the Russian Alexander Povetkin, the mandatory contender whom Wilder must now face. The 35-year-old has lost just once, to WBA, WBO and IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko, and would give Wilder all the trouble he could handle.

A slew of other worthy challengers, chiefly Bryant Jennings and even Anthony Joshua, will sleep easily at the thought of fighting Wilder.

The American at least doesn’t pretend to be the finished article, but the concern is that the supposed standard bearer has so many weaknesses. We’ve had heavyweight champions like him before, but the division yearns for someone to excite in the manner of an Evander Holyfield (who was ringside) or Mike Tyson. The Klitschkos, for all their excellence, never did so.

I’m really hoping Wilder can take the big step up. Not only does he look the part, but he has an appealing shtick about him and the sort of backstory that will resonate with fans.

Wilder will be fun to have around for a year or two, but little about him, not even his remarkable 34-0 (33 KOs) record, indicates that he is the great redeemer.

I’m betting on Joshua being that man, in about two years, with bit-parts for Tyson Fury, Jennings and perhaps even David Haye, if he ever decides to fight again.