Mohegan Sun, CT. – In the co-main event, Swedish heavyweight contender Otto Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs) continued his rise in the division with a unanimous decision over former world title challenger Dominic Breazeale (20-3, 18 KOs). The judges scored the fight 117-111, 116-112 and 118-110.
The veteran Breazeale, whose only previous two losses came to unified champion Anthony Joshua and former WBC titlist Deontay Wilder, showed signs of ring rust after a 21-month layoff. He started slowly and it was Wallin who was able to get his offense on track early and often. The southpaw Wallin landed a huge left hand that caused swelling over Breazeale’s right eye in the fifth round. He out-jabbed Breazeale 103 to 37 and landed more than twice the number of power shots than Breazeale did (129-54).
Wallin, who constantly stated his desire to move past the Tyson Fury fight that he nearly won in 2019 in the pre-fight leadup, earned the most impressive win of his career in his second appearance at the Mohegan Sun “Fight Sphere”.
“I think I had an advantage because I fought here before,” said the 30-year-old, who lives and trains in New York City under former world champion Joey Gamache.
“I was more focused this time and I think I came out better than what I did last time. We knew coming in that I had better footwork, better speed so I wanted to use that. And I have good defense too. He hit me here and there but nothing too serious. I said before the fight that I just gotta do what I’m good at and that’s what I tried to do.
“My ultimate goal is to be champion. But I have to keep improving, I’m not there yet. I’ve got a lot of work to do, I’m getting better. I’m not so focused on who I fight, I just want to fight, keep it stepping it up and when I get another shot, I’ll be ready for it.”
For his part, Breazeale had no excuses after the loss.
“I let the early rounds get away from me,” said the 2012 U.S. Olympian Breazeale. “Otto is a good boxer and did a good job of sticking and moving the whole fight. I did a little bit too much head-hunting at the start and paid for it on the back-end.”