By Nick Adams: Hard-punching 6’4″ 236 lb heavyweight contender Travis Walker (27-1-1, 21 KOs) got revenge for a 15-second 1st round knockout loss last October to heavyweight TJ Wilson (12–2, 8 KOs) on Friday night when he stopped Wilson in the 2nd round at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, in Lemoore, California. Walker, 27, hurt Wilson with a right hand early in the round, and then finished him off with a wild flurry of shots culminating with a big right hand that sent Wilson, badly hurt, bouncing off the ring ropes. The referee Lou Moret moved in and halted the bout at 1:50 of the 2nd round.
Last year, on October 19th, the southpaw Wilson, 33, blitzed Walker in the opening seconds of the round hitting him with a huge flurry of left and right hands that hurt Walker, causing him to drop his hands as he was getting pummeled in the corner. Referee Raul Caiz, seeing that Walker was defenseless, stopped the bout immediately. However, after stopping the fight, Walker then put his hands up to defend himself, as if he were okay. This obviously created a little controversy, for there were people that thought that the referee had been a little hasty to stop the fight after only 15 seconds when Walker hadn’t even gone down.
This time on Friday night, Walker intended for things to be different as he wasn’t going to let himself get bum rushed like last time out. In the first round, he came out strong, throwing big right hands and staying busy the entire round. He appeared to lose the round, however, due to Wilson landing the bigger shots. At one moment in the fight, while in close with Wilson, Walker looked over at the referee for some reason, leaving himself open for a big left hand shot from Wilson. It was a bad lapse of concentration on the part of Walker, showing that he still needs a lot of work before he’s ready for better fighters.
In the second round, Walker missed a number of big right hand shots. He seemed way over eager for a knockout, and was missing badly while trying to take out Wilson. For his part, Wilson, who came into the fight at 264 lbs, 18 lbs lighter than his previous weight in their last fight, and appeared to be doing well in the round until he was hit with a big right hand from Walker. The punch seemed to momentarily stun Wilson. Not letting the opportunity slip away, Walker threw a flurry of shots, missing most of them in his urgency to get the knockout. However, several of his big right hands landed, further hurting Wilson and sending him to the ropes, where the referee Lou Moret halted the bout.
Walker, though getting the knockout, appeared very tight-looking and was lucky that he scored the KO when he did, for if the bout had gone longer he may have punched himself out.