Wilder unloads on Breazeale

Heavyweight keeps WBC belt with KO

NEW YORK — Deontay Wilder emphatically got back into the win column Saturday night, knocking out Dominic Breazeale with an overpowering right hand in the first round to defend his heavyweight title.

Wilder hurt Breazeale with a right to the head early in their fight at Barclays Center, but the challenger had recovered from that early onslaught. But there was no coming back from the right later in the round that immediately dropped Breazeale, who was trying to get up as referee Harvey Dock counted him out at 2:17 of the round.

Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) was coming off his draw against Tyson Fury in December, the first fight of his pro career that wasn’t a victory. He wanted a rematch with Fury or a unification match with fellow champion Anthony Joshua, but when those couldn’t be made settled for a mandatory defense of his WBC title.

He ended it quickly, finishing off Breazeale (20-2) after being pushed hard in each of his last two fights.

“Everything just came out of me tonight,” Wilder said.

Wilder weighed in at a little more than 223 pounds, a gain from the 209 he was at for the Fury fight but still well below the 245 he set as a goal after feeling he was too small in that bout.

He doesn’t need any more pounds as long as he still has one of the most feared right hands in boxing.

Breazeale had downplayed Wilder’s power, saying heavyweights are supposed to hit hard. But he should certainly be a believer now.

In the other title fight on the card, Gary Russell Jr. (30-1, 18 KOs) defended his piece of the featherweight title when the referee stopped his bout with Kiko Martinez (39-9-2) late in the fifth round on the advice of the ringside doctor because of a bad cut over the challenger’s left eye.

Frank Franklin II The Associated Press WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder dances in front of floored Dominic Breazeale in the first round of their title fight Saturday in New York.