That’s all for tonight. Thanks as always for following along with us and be sure to check out the fight report, which will be updated with news from the press conference as it happens.
“I think the ref stopped it a little early because I could hear him saying seven and eight, but that’s boxing,” Breazeale says. “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.”
He adds: “This was a situation where he 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 says Fury rematch and Joshua fight will happen
“I understand what Tyson Fury did,” Wilder says. “When you get dropped on the canvas like that and you don’t know how you got down there or how you got up, I understand you have to get yourself back together. That’s what he did. But that fight will happen. The rematch will happen. Like all these other big fights are going to happen. I know a lot of people want to know when the Joshua fight is going to happen. The great thing is all these fights are in discussion. No doors are closed.”
Updated
“Everything just came out of me tonight,” Wilder says. “I know it’s been a big build-up. There’s been a lot of animosity and a lot of words that were said and it just came out of me tonight. That’s what makes boxing so great.”
He adds: “I just told Breazeale I love him and of course I want to see him go home to his family. I know we say some things, but when you can fight a man and then you can hug him and kiss him, I wish the world was like that. We shake hands and we live to see another day and that’s what it’s all about.”
Updated
Deontay Wilder knocks out Dominic Breazeale in round one!
Round 1
Cagey start. Wilder throws a left-right combo to start and the right grazes Breazeale. Wilder lands a right down the middle and follows with a clubbing left. Breazeale defiantly shakes his head. And Wilder lands a punch and he’s got Breazeale hurt! Breazeale is hurt and in the corner! But Breazeale lands something back, a big right to Wilder’s jaw, buying some time and space and moving it back to the middle of the ring. Then suddenly Wilder detonates a looping right hand to the jaw that drops Breazeale ... Breazeale is down in a heap and looking up ... I don’t think he’s going to beat the count ... and he’s counted out by Harvey Dock! It’s a first-round knockout for Deontay Wilder!
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED.@BronzeBomber banks a Round 1 KO against @TroubleBoxing.#WilderBreazeale pic.twitter.com/dtmcsVFqQh
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) May 19, 2019
Updated
Here we go! Jimmy Lennon Jr has announced the fighters. Referee Harvey Dock has given the final instructions. The seconds are out. And we’ll be underway any moment, picking it up with round-by-round commentary from here ...
Here come the fighters!
Dominic Breazeale makes the long walk to the ring to Nipsey Hussle’s Grindin All My Life. He climbs through the ropes, circles the ring, holds his glove up to the crowd. Looks comfortable and ready.
Now it’s Wilder, who emerges from the tunnel to Meek Mill’s Intro (Championships). He’s flanked by a pair of interpretive dancers. What a culture vulture!
Deontay Wilder makes quite an entrance. pic.twitter.com/h7x2iI1StI
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) May 19, 2019
“I did pretty well,” says Russell after his fourth successful featherweight title defense. “We stayed behind the jab and he couldn’t get past it. We knew that intellect over athleticism would get it done.”
Russell says he’d like a unification bout with WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz next: “We want to make this fight happen. The fire is all the way hot on this side of the field. You will get burned. I would love for that fight to happen this year. Let’s make it happen.”
Jim Gray talks future plans with @mrgaryrusselljr after successfully defending his title for the 4th time. #RussellMartinez pic.twitter.com/jFWkVzfVDh
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) May 19, 2019
Preamble
Good evening and welcome to Brooklyn for tonight’s heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Dominic Breazeale. We’re ringside at Barclays Center for the first of three key fights in the next four weeks involving the three men with legitimate claims to the title of world’s best heavyweight: Wilder, Anthony Joshua (who fights Andy Ruiz Jr in two weeks) and Tyson Fury (who meets the unheralded Tom Schwarz on 15 June).
Fight fans would no doubt prefer they’d be doing a round robin with each other rather than a trio of low-risk opponents they’re expected to beat. But of the fights on hand, tonight’s appears to be the most competitive. Breazeale, whose lone career defeat came by seventh-round stoppage in Anthony Joshua’s first title defense, will go off as a 5-1 underdog. The former college quarterback has formidable power and enough ring smarts to make it a close (and boring) fight, but it’s hard to pick against Wilder in any fight over 12 rounds as long as he’s in his athletic prime due to the power he’s packing in either hand. Eventually, the punches will get there.
Gary Russell Jr has just successfully defended his WBC featherweight title in the co-main event against Kiko Martínez by fifth-round TKO due to a bad cut over Martínez’s left eye, which means Wilder and Breazeale should make their entrances in about 15 minutes or so.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his look at the month of heavyweight features that kicks off tonight in Brooklyn.
