By Jeff Aranow: Unbeaten #14 WBC heavyweight contender Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) stayed undefeated with a 4th round knockout victory over 45-year-old former world title challenger Ray “The Rainman” Austin (29-8-4, 18 KOs) last Saturday night at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
In a match-up between two towering 6’6” heavyweights, the younger 34-year-old Washington landed a series of big shots to the head of Austin to floor him in round four. Austin didn’t get up from the knockdown and the fight was halted by the referee at 1:45 of the round.
Austin, 6’6”, tried to make a fight of it earlier in the contest in landing some slapping shots. However, Washington fought smart and was able to keep out of the range of most of the attempts at offense that Austin tried. Washington showed a good jab and nice right hands that he was able to land repeatedly to the older Austin.
The victory for Washington was his second consecutive victory after fighting to a controversial 10 round draw against 43-year-old Amir Mansour last October. A lot of boxing fans thought that Mansour had done enough to get the victory. However, it was a close affair that made it difficult to distinguish a win in that fight. In Washington’s last fight, he defeated former world title challenger Eddie Chambers by an eight round unanimous decision last April in an impressive performance.
Washington had too much size for the 6’1” Chambers, who looked like he didn’t want to take any risks by getting in punching range of Washington’s big shots. You couldn’t really blame the 6’1” Chambers for not wanting to take any chances in the fight because he was giving away five inches in height and seven inches in reach to Washington in that fight.
Washington needs to keep putting victories in the win column so that he can get pushed up the rankings. He’s too good to be given a world title shot in a voluntary defense by WBC champion Deontay Wilder or against the other champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Washington will likely need to fight his way to the No.1 mandatory spot with one of the sanctioning bodies before he gets a title shot. He needs to do this fairly quickly though because he’s getting up there in age at 34 and can’t afford to take hi time in getting to the top spot to fight for a world title.
For Austin, he suffered his fourth loss in his last five fights. It’s unclear what the end game is for him. He used to be a contender during the height of his career, but he’s clearly stuck around a little too long and his once impressive skills have eroded with age. Austin’s other losses in the last six years have come against Andy Ruiz Jr., Bermane Stiverne and Odlanier Solis.