Deontay Wilder Returns with a Bang; Pulverizes Helenius in the First Round

Deontay Wilder added yet another highlight reel knockout to his portfolio tonight in Brooklyn, knocking former sparring partner Robert Helenius out cold in the opening round. Wilder had his back against a corner post when he landed a short right hand that knocked Helenius flat on his back. It didn’t appear as if Deantay got a lot of leverage behind the punch, burnishing his reputation as arguably the hardest-punching heavyweight of all time.

Wilder weighed in at a svelte 214 ½ pounds, 24 pounds less than what he weighed for his third encounter with Tyson Fury. Take away those three fights with Fury and Wilder’s record now stands at 43-0 with 42 KOs!. Helenius, 38, falls to 31-4. The official time was 2:57.

Wilder has expressed an interest in fighting Oleksandr Usyk. A more likely scenario is that his next fight will come against Andy Ruiz.

Co-Feature

The co-feature, a 168-pound WBC eliminator between Caleb Plant and Anthony Dirrell, was a rather messy and uninteresting fight until Plant unexpectantly did his Deontay Wilder impression and produced a spectacular one-punch knockout. The end for Dirrell came courtesy of a counter left hook in round nine. Dirrell was unconscious before he hit the mat and referee Harvey Dock waived it off without a count. The official time was 2:57 of round nine.

Plant, an Ashland City, Tennessee native who fights out of Las Vegas, elevated his record to 22-1 (13) in his first start since getting stopped in 11 rounds by Canelo Alvarez. Michigan’s Dirrell, a former WBC super middleweight champion who turned 38 yesterday, declined to 34-3-2.

Other Bouts

In a heavyweight match, Cuban import Frank Sanchez, age 30 or thereabouts, advanced to 21-0 (14 KOs) with a ninth-round stoppage of Carlos Negron (25-4). In a fight that appeared headed to the cards with little doubt as to the outcome, Sanchez brought the brought the bout to a premature conclusion, knocking Negron to his knees with a right hand and then following that up with a barrage of punches that forced referee Ricky Gonzalez to waive it off. The official time was 1:36 of round nine.

Negron, a 2008 Beijing Olympian for Puerto Rico, had won five straight heading in after getting stopped in the opening round by Brian Howard. All four of his losses have come inside the distance.

In the opener of the pay-per-view portion of the telecast, Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez, a former IBF world bantamweight champion, produced a mild upset with a lopsided 10-round technical decision over previously undefeated Gary Antonio Russell. This was a rematch of a fight staged in August of last year that lasted all of 16 seconds when Rodriguez was ruled unfit to continue after suffering a bad cut from an accidental clash of heads.

There was a clash of heads in this fight too and again Rodriguez took the worst of it, dropping to his knees with a bad gash over his right eye, but it happened near the end of round nine and to that point Rodriguez was dominant. He had rocked Russell in the first and fourth frames and had put him on the deck harshly in round eight.

There was some confusion as to whether the fight should be stopped and it was actually called off two seconds into round 10. It went to the cards where the judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 99-93 in favor of the Puerto Rican. Rodriguez improved to 21-2 (14). It was the first pro loss for Russell (19-1), a former National Golden Gloves champion from a distinguished DC-area boxing family.

More

In a rather monotonous 8-rounder, Vito “White Magic” Mielnicki Jr, a 20-year-old super welterweight from Roseland, NJ, out-classed Limberth Ponce, winning by scores of 98-92 and 99-01 twice. It was the fifth straight win for Milenicki (13-1, 8 KOs). Ponce, who declined to 19-6, has done most of his fighting in Davenport, Iowa, across the river from his home in Rock Island, Illinois.

In an 8-round contest, Michel Rivera, a lightweight from the Dominican Republic, improved to 24-0 (14) with a lopsided decision over hard-trying but overmatched Jerry Perez (14-2. The judges had it 80-71 and 79-72 twice.

Rivera, who in appearance resembles a smaller version of the young Muhammad Ali, his idol, is a fighter who bears watching. Perez, from Oak Hill, CA, is a protégé of Leo Santa Cruz.

In a bout slated for eight rounds in the “overstuffed” division, Gurgen Hovhannisyan, a 24-year-old LA-based Armenian, improved to 4-0 (4 KOs) at the expense of 36-year-old flash-in-the-pan Michael Coffie (13-3). The big six-foot-seven Armenian likely won every round before the fight was stopped at the end of the sixth frame on the recommendation of the ringside physician.

Super bantamweight Michael Angeletti, a hot prospect from Spring, TX, improved to 7-0 (6 KOs) at the expense of Allentown, Pennsylvania’s Jeremy Adorno (7-1). A former USA national amateur flyweight champion, Angeletti had Adorno on the deck twice in round two and then after a relatively even round, upped the tempo in rounds four and five, leading Adorno’s cornerman to pull him out before the start of the sixth.

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