By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Lou Dibella has found a very good fighter in #10 WBC Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs_ to step in and replace Andrzej Wawrzyk as the opponent for WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) for their fight on February 25 on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox and Fox Deportes at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
Wawrzyk failed a drug test after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanazolol. Dibella believes that the 6’7” Washington will be more of a test than the 6’6” Wawrzyk would have been, and he’s probably right.
Wawrzyk crumbled almost immediately in his loss to Alexander Povetkin several years ago. With Washington, he took the big jarring shots from knockout artist Amir Mansour in fighting him to a 10 round draw in 2015. Washington has a good chin.
“He was a star college football player,” said DiBella about Washington via skysports.com. “He’s a physical specimen and he’s a great athlete. “Deontay is familiar with Washington’s style, he’s seen him fight. I think it’s a more testing fight than Wawrzyk would have been.”
Wilder, 6’7”, has the same dimensions as Washington. The only difference in size between the two giant heavyweights is the weight department. Wilder recently weighed in at 226lbs for his last fight against Chris Arreola. Washington weighed 243lbs for his last fight against journeyman Ray Austin last July.
Washington is usually close to 250lbs. He’s going to likely have a 25lb weight advantage over Deontay when the two of them get inside the ring on February 25. However, the weight isn’t going to keep Deontay from doing a number on Washington. Deontay is too fast, too powerful and just too talented for him to be turned back by him giving away some weight against Washington.
Washington should make for a good test for Deontay to get him ready to take on the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko fight. Wilder wants the winner of that fight, and he’s not going to be sidetracked by Washington.
“If down the line, you’re looking at Joshua and Deontay, two good looking, well spoken, massive heavyweights with tremendous credentials were to meet for a total unification of the heavyweight division – that’s a massive fight,” said Dibella.
Dibella shouldn’t let the Wilder vs. Joshua fight marinate too long because he could spoil the broth. If Dibella waits too long, Joshua might get whipped by Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, and then there won’t be any point of a Wilder-Joshua fight.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants Wilder to fight #9 WBC Dillian Whyte before he faces Joshua. Hearn also promotes Whyte, so it would be a move that would help him and his Matchroom Sport stable if Wilder were to throw him a bone by giving Whyte an arguably undeserved title shot.
Whyte has unfinished business against Dereck Chisora. That’s who Hearn should be looking to put Whyte in with rather than hoping that Wilder will fight him. For some reason, Whyte doesn’t want to fight Chisora a second time. I can understand why. I had Chisora beating Whyte last year.