He didn’t murder him in the ring, but Deontay Wilder laid Dominic Breazeale out before the show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn could get started.
The undefeated Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs), who was defending his WBC heavyweight title, wasted no time putting the beats on Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs). It took all of 2 minutes and 17 seconds for Breazeale to go night-night, with Wilder delivering a vicious one-punch knockout moments after the first round started. Not even enough time for Breazeale’s head to get properly knotted.
In the lead-up to Saturday night’s mandatory fight against Breazeale, Wilder had expressed his desire to add “a body” to his boxing record, “His life is on the line for this fight and I do mean his life. I am still trying to get me a body on my record. Dominic Breazeale asked for this. This is the only sport where you can kill a man and get paid for it at the same time. It’s legal. So why not use my right to do so?”
Thankfully for Breazeale (and Wilder), while Wilder won the fight, he was not successful in ending Breazeale’s life.
In the post fight Wilder said, “I know there was a lot of words and animosity against each other and it just came out tonight. This is what makes boxing so great when you can have so much inside and just overcome.”
For his part, Breazeale seemed to come-to mid-count and tried to tried to get his bearings before the ref called the fight, “I think the ref stopped it a little early because I could hear him saying seven and eight, but that’s boxing. He did his job and kept us safe for our next fight. I got on my feet and had my legs under me. It’s the heavyweight division so there’s going to big shots from guys with power. This was a situation where [Wilder] landed the big right hand before I did. I thought I was going to come on in the later rounds. I’ll be back and go for the heavyweight title again.”
Wilder, 33, has held the WBC heavyweight title since 2015.
