Wilder stops Arreola, retains WBC heavyweight title

By Tracy Morin at ringside
Photos: Ryan Hafey/Jordan Hardy/Premier Boxing Champions

Unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) retained his title with an eighth round TKO over Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) on Saturday night at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. Wilder dropped Arreola in round four, then staggered him badly at the bell. Wilder apparently injured his right hand and used it sparingly after that. Wilder continued to punish Arreola with the left hand and had “The Nightmare” staggering back to his stool after round seven. Arreola’s corner finally stopped the beating at the conclusion of round eight. After the fight, Wilder said he broke his right hand and also suffered a torn right bicep.

Veteran southpaw Vic Darchinyan (42-9-1, 31 KO) immediately looked to pressure and pin down fellow junior featherweight Sergio Frias (18-6-2, 9 KO), who has fought mostly in Mexico. The first round was a feeling-out affair, but as “Finito” Frias circled his 40-year-old opponent, he lived up to his nickname, ending the night early in surprising but devastating fashion. Frias landed a killer right hand that dropped Darchinyan, hard, and the fight was immediately waved off at 2:14 of Round 2.

Unbeaten welterweight Jamal James (20-0, 9 KOs) recovered from a first round knockdown to take a ten round split decision over Wale Omotoso (26-3, 21 KOs). Scores were 96-93 Omotoso, 97-92, 96-94 for James.

Up-and-coming junior middleweight Erickson Lubin (16-0, 11 KO) received a certain amount of resistance throughout eight rounds from Ivan Montero (20-2, 8 KO), making his U.S. debut and giving the 20-year-old experience against a durable Mexican opponent. But in this decidedly unpretty, grind-it-out fight, the outcome was never in doubt. Both went to the body early and were willing to engage, even amid frequent clinches and on-the-inside wrestling moments (when Lubin was not above jabbing a forearm into his opponent’s throat). Still, Lubin’s punches were crisper, harder and more frequent; though he was warned for low blows in round four, he seemed content to break down his opponent down bit by bit and never hit the brakes on his body attack. Montero frequently complained to the ref about everything from head butts to low blows as Lubin continued to put the work in. And Montero’s lack of power, especially as the fight wore on, gave Lubin little to fear. By the end of the seventh and the eighth, Lubin peppered Montero with quick, heavy-handed combos, but Montero made it to the final bell, losing by a shutout unanimous decision (80-72 on all cards).

In a 10-round battle between welterweight southpaws, Sammy Vasquez (21-1, 15 KO) suffered his first loss against Felix Diaz (18-1, 8 KO). Vasquez has recently called out Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia (who was calling fights ringside), but first he’d have to get through Diaz, a 2008 gold medalist for his native Dominican Republic coming off a majority decision loss against Lamont Peterson last October. In a quiet first round, Vasquez was busier and committed to the jab in the second to stave off a lunging Diaz offense. But Diaz’s bull-rushing style broke through a bit in the third, as the two tangoed in the ring in a clinch and Diaz kept his punches flowing to head and body. In the fourth, Vasquez’s flow was continually interrupted by Diaz’s awkward aggression, and the latter landed a snapping uppercut in the final seconds, countered by Vasquez as the two closed the round smiling at each other. By the fifth, it was clear Diaz was having success making it his kind of fight–a physical, close-quarters dogfight–and Vasquez, while not afraid to trade, had more success from a distance with the jab. Diaz hung back more in the sixth and seventh, exploding in spots and even absorbing a few power punches from Vasquez as they traded on the inside. Still, Diaz landed more of the impressive punches and oozed confidence as they headed into the final rounds. In a tough eighth for Vasquez, Diaz pinned his opponent to the ropes and unleashed a shower of power punches, and while Vasquez landed a few of his own, he was bleeding freely from a cut over the eye and the mouth by the end. The violent ninth saw both fighters visibly affected by the blows they absorbed; Vasquez vacillated from defensive shell to oncoming aggressor, and clean punches scored on both sides, drawing roars from the crowd before the 10th. Diaz played it safe in much of the final round, until he waved Vasquez in and a final hurricane of punches unleashed from both. Vasquez also lost a point in the final round after losing his mouthpiece for the third time. While Vasquez, bloodied and battered by the final bell, never stopped coming and showed plenty of heart, the decision looked to be clear for Diaz. But judges turned in head-scratching scores of 96-94 (Diaz) and 95-95 (twice), which elicited thunderous boos from the crowd and prompted the commission to recount the scorecards. The recounted scores reflected the win for Diaz: 96-93 and 95-94 (twice).

In a scheduled eight-rounder, former football player and boxing latecomer Gerald Washington (18-0, 12 KO) looked to keep his perfect record intact vs. veteran Ray Austin (29-8-4, 18 KO). Washington turned pro in 2012, at 30, but Austin (now 45) has been inactive in recent years and appeared sluggish from the start. The 6’6″ heavyweights had a tentative first few rounds; though Washington started to land some leather in the second, Austin seemed more likely to try to survive than commit to a sustained offense, and Washington looked hesitant to close the show, leaving the crowd restless. But Washington emerged aggressively for round four–landing some clean one-twos that eventually froze Austin and made him an easy target for an onslaught of power punches that put him down. Though the referee went through with the count, Austin remained horizontal, leading to a stoppage at 1:45 of the fourth.

Ryan Martin (15-0, 9 KO) boasts the nickname “Blue Chip,” and the lightweight showed off his speed and accuracy from the opening stanza of a six-rounder vs. Samuel Amoako (21-12, 15 KO). Showing patience and poise, Martin wasted nary a punch, systematically picking apart his opponent and showing off a selection of shots, often in quick combination. Martin wisely committed to a brutal body attack in the second, followed by cracking right hands in the third, while a durable but ineffective Amoako seemed to have little answer for the 23-year-old prospect as the rounds repeated themselves. With little offense coming back to deter him, Martin simply teed off at will while remaining calm and economical, but Amoako (who has been stopped only twice) hung in there until the final bell. Not surprisingly, all three judges scored the bout 60-54 for Martin.

Fighting for the fourth time since their first meeting in 2007, Layla McCarter (38-13-5, 9 KO) and Melissa Hernandez (22-7-3, 7 KO) needed little feeling-out time when the opening bell rang for the welterweight eight-rounder. But the second round kicked up the competition as both started to throw with more conviction. McCarter, who won two of the three previous bouts and has been called one of the best all-time female fighters, worked a steady jab as Hernandez gunned for the overhand right. McCarter got the best of brisk exchanges in the fourth, though Hernandez also started to close the distance with more aggression. Hernandez ate some clean combos against the ropes at the close of round 5, otherwise a fairly quiet round for McCarter, who continued in round six to land the cleaner punches as Hernandez applied bulldog-like pressure but at times got caught coming in. In a spirited eighth, the two fighters (who both stood between rounds) engaged in vicious back-and-forth action that had the crowd cheering. Ultimately, the judges favored McCarter’s cleaner punches, with scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 78-74.

Kenneth McNeil (9-3, 6 KO) met Robert Burwell (7-1, 2 KO) in a middleweight bout scheduled for six. McNeil, a hometown favorite from Birmingham, sought to bounce back from a March loss to Ievgen Khytrov, while Burwell himself was coming off a layoff after a TKO loss in March 2015. But both emerged with bad intentions in the first and continued with swift exchanges in the second. With McNeil’s back to the ropes and Burwell attacking, he lashed out with a left hook that landed flush, stunning Burwell as McNeil followed with a second hook. A knocked down Burwell beat the count and fought back with gusto, until he was backed into the ropes and ate a combination punctuated by a sharp uppercut. When he crumpled to the mat, his corner stepped in and the ref waved off the bout at 2:06 of round two.

Middleweight KeAndre Leatherwood (17-3-1, 10 KO) made quick work of Tyrone Selders (9-11-1, 6 KO), needing less than two full rounds to dispatch his opponent. After a one-sided first round, Selders committed to more activity in the second with minimal success, but the faster, more fluid Leatherwood soon caught him with a right-left combo that put Selders down–with little indication he’d be getting up. The referee dispensed with the count and waved off the bout at 2:30 of the second.

Robert Alfonso-Acea (8-0, 3 KO) repeated his first effort against the overmatched Jamal Woods (8-28-6, 8 KO) in a six-round heavyweight bout to open the card at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The two had met in 2013, giving Alfonso-Acea a clean sweep at the time–to be nearly repeated tonight with judges’ scores of 59-55 and 60-54 (twice). Woods, though game, was steadily outworked by his opponent throughout.

123►