By Chris Williams: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) made quick work of his mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs) in stopping him in the first round on Saturday night in front of a huge crowd on Showtime World Championship Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The 6’7″ Wilder landed a devastating right hand to the head of Breazeale that sent him crashing to the canvas where he laid there badly hurt. Three would be getting up off the canvas for the 33-year-old Breazeale. He was too gone to get up to continue fighting.
Breazeale had stunned Wilder moments earlier with a right hand counter that backed him up. Breazeale followed after Wilder, jabbing him and trying to nail him to the back of the head. Moments after a clinch, Wilder landed a scorching right hand that separated Breazeale from his senses, sending him down on the canvas badly hurt. Breazeale never saw the shot coming, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to take it. Wilder’s right hand had too much power on it.
It’s a good thing that Tyson Fury chose not to fight Wilder tonight, as he wouldn’t have lasted long with this bulked up version that we saw of him. Wilder came into the fight 11 pounds heavier at 223 pounds compared to the 212 pound Wilder we saw last December against Fury. Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas says he weighed only 205 lbs. during the fight with Fury. Basically, Fury fought a cruiserweight, and still couldn’t beat him and was still knocked down twice by him.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was in the audience tonight to scout out the Wilder vs. Breazeale fight. One can only imagine what’s going through Joshua’s head right now after witnessing the devastating power from Wilder’s right hand. Joshua might have second thoughts about wanting to fight Wilder right now, because he’s looking unbeatable right now. If that right hand that Wilder hit Breazeale with landed on the chin of Joshua, it’s likely we would have seen the same results. Joshua was put down by 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in their fight in 2017, and that was with the Ukrainian being over-the-hill, coming off of a loss to Fury and a two-year layoff from the sport.
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