On Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, heavyweight contender Dominic Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs) stopped Eric Molina after eight rounds.
Molina, exhausted after taking a battering in the eighth, had his arms hanging over the ropes when the round ended. A ringside doctor then stopped it.
Molina (26-5) previously has lost to both WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) and to WBA, IBO IBF champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs). Breazeale also has lost to Joshua.
The fight with Molina was billed as a "WBC eliminator" - but contrary to reports the contest was NOT a "final" eliminator. With the victory, Breazeale will move up in the rankings, but he is not going to be a mandatory challenger.
Putting that aside, Breazeale is looking for a world title shot in his next fight.
"Deontay is who I want to face," Breazeale said. “I have to see him. We have some personal business that we need to square up, man to man.”
There is a lot of bad blood with Wilder, who in the main event of the same card demolished Bermane Stiverne in the first round.
The two big heavyweights were involved is a physical altercation back in February, when they were both featured on the same card in Wilder's hometown of Alabama.
There was some type of confrontation at the arena between Breazeale and Wilder's brother. And then Wilder himself got into it with Breazeale at a nearby hotel in Birmingham. Breazeale made allegations that Wilder attacked him at the hotel, and then he actually filed a lawsuit over the incident in a California court - seeking compensation from Wilder. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
If Wilder is unable to secure a unification with Joshua in the coming year, it would not be surprising to see him in the ring with Breazeale - as both of them are advised by Al Haymon and fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner.