Deontay Wilder Takes Out Gerald Washington to Retain Heavyweight Title

With a near-full Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, cheering him on, reigning WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder was sluggish, slow and out of sync early on against challenger Gerald Washington. Their battle anchored a PBC on Fox card in Wilder’s home state and it appeared as though a sizable upset was in the works.

Washington used a solid jab to keep Wilder guessing and when the champ got close enough, the Californian dug thudding hooks to the body. Wilder remained calm, though, as he waded through the sporadic attacks and just when it seemed like his unblemished professional record was in jeopardy, Wilder changed the tides in the blink of an eye.

Washington tripled up a jab and when he did, he left his head out too far, allowing Wilder to crack it with a short right cross. The punch turned Washington’s legs to gelatin and a follow-up left to the head dropped him into the ropes. Washington (18-1-1, 12 KOs) quickly regained his footing, but when the fight resumed, “The Bronze Bomber” pounced on him like a man possessed. The heavily-tattooed titlist swarmed him with furious punches to the head and when a few too many crashed upside the challenger’s head, referee Mike Griffin had no choice but to intervene.

The end officially came at the 1:45 mark of the fifth, allowing Wilder to retain his title and look ahead to potential unification bouts with the other titleholders in the division. There are several high-level heavies for Wilder, now 38-0 with 37 KOs, to lock horns with, but it’s a matter of time to see with whom he’ll tango.

Jarrett Hurd dominated Tony Harrison in the co-feature and wound up knocking out him in the ninth to capture the vacant IBF junior middleweight title. Hurd was in control from the beginning of the bout with his superior handspeed and more accurate punching, but “Super Bad” never stopped trying to turn the tables. However, a rocket of an overhand right exploded on Harrison’s jaw late in the ninth, sending him flat on his back. Harrison (24-2, 20 KOs) managed to beat the count, but when he was trying to tell referee Jim Korb that was okay, the Detroit native spat out his mouthpiece, prompting the veteran third man to halt the contest. The end came at the 2:24 mark, allowing Hurd, from Maryland, to improve to 20-0 with his 14th career knockout.

In a wild, crazy heavyweight fight that started off the PBC on Fox telecast, it was contender Dominic Breazeale who survived hell to earn himself a knockout win. Breazeale knocked Poland’s Izuagbe Ugonoh down early in the third, but Ugonoh rallied late in the round to get back into the thick of things. The action got away from Breazeale in the following frame as Ugonoh (17-1, 14 KOs) rallied and scored a knockdown of his own and nearly stopped the taller American. However, Breazeale went for broke in the fifth and dropped Ugonoh twice; the second one sent the Pole through the ropes. The official time of the knockout came just 50 seconds into the fifth, allowing Breazeale to improve to 18-1 with his 16th knockout in his first fight since losing to Anthony Joshua last year (latest odds).