Wilder’s right brings night to screeching halt
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 Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, then soon unleashed another that dropped Breazeale, who was trying to get up as he was counted out at 2:17 of the round.
Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) was coming off a draw against Tyson Fury in December, the first fight of his pro career that wasn’t a win. He wanted a rematch or a unification match with fellow champion Anthony Joshua, but when those couldn’t be made, he settled for a mandatory defense of his World Boxing Council title.
He finished Breazeale (20-2) quickly after being tested in his last two fights.
“Everything just came out of me tonight,” Wilder said.
Wilder was coming off tough tests in his last two bouts, getting rocked by Luis Ortiz in their March 2018 fight in this arena before stopping the Cuban in the 10th round, and needing a knockdown in the final round to secure the draw with Fury.
Breazeale was challenging for a heavyweight title for the second time, having been stopped by Joshua in the seventh round three years ago in Britain. He said he had learned from that fight, but nothing could have prepared him for Wilder’s power.
Wilder and Joshua was the fight just about everyone in boxing would prefer to see, but so far it’s been all talk. Joshua will be making his U.S. debut at nearby Madison Square Garden on June 1 against replacement opponent Andy Ruiz.
Wilder put aside the letdown of not facing Joshua or Fury again because of his anger at Breazeale over a 2017 altercation with family members at an Alabama hotel. He went as far as to tout his ability to kill a man in the ring.
He looked like a picture of peace as he carried his young daughter into the arena about three hours earlier, but was back to making his case as boxing’s baddest man once the fighting started.
In the other title fight, Gary Russell Jr. (30-1, 18 KOs) defended his WBC featherweight title when the referee stopped his bout with Kiko Martinez (39-9-2) in the fifth round because of a bad cut over the challenger’s left eye.
Other bouts
Josh Taylor relieved Ivan Baranchyk of the International Boxing Federation super lightweight title after winning by unanimous decision in Scotland, while World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue knocked down Emmanuel Rodriguez three times in two rounds to take his IBF title and win the World Boxing Super Series semifinal. Inoue will face Nonito Donaire in the final later this year . ... Billy Joe Saunders beat Shefat Isufi by unanimous decision to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization super middleweight title in England.