Navy Vet Gerald Washington Comfortable as the Underdog Versus Deontay Wilder
You should never count out a Navy man.
Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KO) will enter the ring to challenge for the WBC Heavyweight Championship February 25 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, as a significant underdog.
Wilder’s punching power—he could take the paint off the walls—is the dominant storyline heading into all of his fights. He has the mustard on his right hand to zap any opponent and put him into sleepy land.
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But Washington, whose JROTC background and love for the values of the United States military led him to enlist in the Navy after high school, where he spent four years as a helicopter mechanic, isn’t the kind of guy who scares easily.
Or at all.
“I’m taking all my life experiences into this fight. From boxing as a kid to facing bullies to being in the military to going to USC and competing against the top athletes in the country,” Washington told Bleacher Report. “I’m not scared of anybody. I know how to prepare for a challenge.”
“It’s going to be a long night of work. I’m ready to take my lunchbox in, strap on my boots and just go to work. I have a job to do and I’m going to do it.”
Washington was recruited to USC by then-head coach Pete Carroll after two years of junior college but didn’t make a huge impact on the field. He briefly stuck with the practice squads of the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks in the NFL.
He got the opportunity to compete for a share of the heavyweight championship shortly after Andrzej Wawrzyk became the second Wilder opponent in his last three fights to fail a drug test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) as part of the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program.
The chance was too good to pass up, even if, by his own admission, it came sooner than expected. He was already training for a bout on the undercard, so when a chance to move up to the main event came, it was a no-brainer to accept.
A lot of times in boxing it’s circumstances (even more than talent) that dictate the course of careers. A boxer has to be in the right place at the right time and grasp at something he or she may not have been preparing for in the moment.
Washington’s relative lack of experience—he had only 14 amateur bouts and just 19 since turning professional in 2012—is one of the reasons giving many pause about considering his chances of unseating the favored champion.
He understands, and he knows he’s going to have to be nearly perfect and bring a little bit of everything in his arsenal to the dance in order to emerge with the upset.
“It’s going to be everything. But it’s not just that [defense]. It’s going to be a mixture of it all. You can’t just stay safe from a guy all night and let him dictate the fight and control the ring,” Washington said.
“You gotta mix it all together. I’ve gotta be defensive, offensive, aggressive. I’ve gotta pull my hands up and walk to him, play on the inside a little bit, I’ve gotta do it all.”
Doing it all against an opponent like Wilder—who is undefeated in 37 fights with 36 knockouts—is the very definition of a tall order, no pun intended.
Washington is an underdog and with good reason.
But he matches up well with Wilder in the size department.
Wilder will enjoy about a one-inch advantage in both height (6'7") and reach (83"), but Washington, based on recent fights, should enter the ring as the heavier of the two.
Now size doesn’t translate to skill, and that comparison will ultimately decide the fight.
Washington knows—on paper at least—that he doesn’t match up very well with his opponent when it comes to the metrics fans and media usually use to predict fights, so he doesn’t find the willingness to dismiss his chances shocking.
He also knows he doesn’t have to be better than Wilder in every category; he just needs to be better than him on this one particular night.
“Nobody is going to compare my skills to Deontay Wilder. They’re going to say he has everything better than me plus experience, plus power, plus he’s been in the fights. But I know from what I do that I can hang with him and compete and beat him.”
“I’m not gonna say I have anything better than him. I know that I can hang with him and compete and beat him. I just know what I can do, and my stuff is going to be all together. I’m going to be better than him on that night.”
All quotes were obtained firsthand.
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