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Deontay Wilder won quickly again tonight fighting at home in Alabama, stopping Kertson Manswell in the first round after three knockdowns, improving his untested pro mark to 24-0, all wins coming by stoppage.
Wilder, 26, looked more filled-out coming in at just under 230 pounds, and appears to be building his body up. At 6'7", he looked really thin weighing in at 215-220 pounds for a while. There wasn't enough to see tonight against Manswell (22-6, 17 KO) to really take anything away from the fight as far as improvements made or anything like that. It was really, "Left hook, right, down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Over."
Wilder needs a step up. I'm not saying it's time to face top 10 guys, because he's not there yet. You don't go from here to top 10. But someone in the top 30 or 40 would be nice, at least.
On the undercard, welterweight Dmitriy Salita returned to the ring with an easy TKO-4 win over super journeyman Roberto Valenzuela, punishing the Mexican fighter to the body and flooring him at the end of the third. Early in the fourth, the beating was enough that the referee stepped in. After the fight, Salita spoke at ringside with commentator and WBA welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi. The two are pretty clearly building to a Brooklyn fight at some point, maybe even on October 20.
Salita is now 34-1-1 (18 KO), while Valenzuela slips to 65-63-2 (54 KO).
In the first televised bout, Puerto Rican featherweight prospect Jayson Velez was not exactly impressive before knocking out Leivi Brea in the sixth round. The finish was pretty, but other than that, there wasn't a lot to see from Velez, who is still young and has time to get better, and may have been just looking to get some rounds in tonight. Velez is now 19-0 (14 KO), and Brea is 19-10-3 (10 KO).