By Jeff Aranow: #3 IBF Jarrett Hurd (20-0, 14 KOs) scored a controversial 9th round knockout over #2 IBF Tony Harrison (24-2, 20 KOs) to capture the vacant IBF junior middleweight title on Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
By Jim Dower: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze” Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) will be getting a purse of $900,000 for his title defense tonight against Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. Washington will be getting a little less than Wilder with his purse being $250,000. That’s not bad money for a challenger with no big fight experience.
Wilder’s paydays should go up after the Washington fight. He could face Anthony Joshua next. Wilder I 31 now, and he needs to upgrade the level of his opposition for him to get the big money that we’re seeing from Joshua. The knock on Wilder is he’s been playing it safe in taking easy voluntary defenses of his World Boxing Council title since he captured the belt in January 2015.
(Credit: Josh Jordan/Premier Boxing Champions) By Jim Dower: Undefeated middleweight prospect Caleb Plant (11-0, 8 KOs) outworked Tyson Brunson (22-6-1, 21 KOs) in beating him by an 8 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC Sports Net at the NRG Arena, in Houston, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 78-74, 79-73 and 79-73.
Plant was the much busier fighter in every round of the fight. Brunson, 30, was the bigger puncher of the two, but he wasn’t able to match the high work rate of Plant. Brunson had a good 6th round in landing some big power shots. However, he was unable to sustain it for the final two rounds of the contest.
By Allan Fox: Previously unbeaten #8 IBF junior middleweight contender Tony “Superman” Harrison (21-1, 18 KOs) was beaten for the first time last Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN in getting stopped in the 9th round by Willie Nelson (24-2-1, 14 KOs) in an upset loss at the USF Sundome, in Tampa, Florida, USA.
The 24-year-old Harrison was ahead on the scorecards going into the 9th round when he was badly hurt by a right hand from Nelson to the top of his head. Nelson then hit Harrison with a grazing left hand followed by a right uppercut that knocked Harrison down on his backside on the canvas.
By Jim Dower: Undefeated junior middleweight knockout artist Tony Harrison (21-0, 18 KOs) picked up his 18th knockout last Friday night in defeating 36-year-old Pablo Munguia (20-7, 11 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage victory in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut, USA.
The 6’1” Harrison knocked the much shorter 5’7” Munguia down with a right to the head late in the 2nd round. Munguia barely made it out of the round. At the start of the 3rd round, Harrison flurried on a still badly hurt Munguia until the referee Arthur Mercante Jr. shoved the 24-year-old Harrison out of the way and stopped the fight before he had a chance to finish off Munguia.
Undefeated junior middleweight Tony Harrison rolled to his 21st straight victory in tonight’s ESPN Friday Night Fights main event, presented by DiBella Entertainment in association with New Legend Boxing, at Mohegan Sun Arena.