By Jake Donovan
For Gerald Washington, 2019 was supposed to be about returning to the title stage. However unlikely that may seem, he can at least comfort in returning to the win column.
The 6’6” heavyweight from Vallejo, Calif. earned his first victory in more than a year, doing so in dramatic fashion Saturday evening in a one-punch 8th round knockout of Robert Helenius. The FS1-televised bout saw Washington begin to fade before landing a long right hand to put Finland’s Helenius down and out for the night.
It was his first win since a 10-round decision over John Wesley Nofire last June and his first knockout since a 4th round stoppage of Ray Austin three years ago almost to the day. That feat came on the undercard of a Deontay Wilder title defense in Birmingham, Ala., iosing to the unbeaten heavyweight in his very next fight.
In fact, all three career losses have come in between his last two knockouts, all ending inside the distance and versus undefeated heavyweights. Washington was picked apart in eight rounds by Jarrell Miller in their July 2017 clash at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where he would suffer a 2nd round stoppage at the hands of Adam Kownacki this past January.
“I've been going between trainers and between styles my last few fights,” admits Washington (20-3-1, 13KOs), a helicopter mechanic during his four-year tour in the U.S. Navy and former two-way lineman for USC’s storied college football program before turning to boxing at a late age. “What got me through this fight tonight was just sticking with it and pushing through everything and gutting it out.
“I just wanted to put it all together. It took me a while to get going and we had been working on that straight one-two, and it landed.”
The sequence couldn’t have come at a better time, as the fight was beginning to slip away from Washington. Making the most of his U.S. debut, Helenius (28-3, 17KOs) seized control in the second half of the fight and was ahead 67-66 on two of three official scorecards before getting drilled with a booming right hand from which he never recovered.
“I kept trying to throw the overhand and he kept cuffing down to protect from it,” said Washington, now 2-3 in his last five starts but where anything other than landing that right hand could’ve meant a far less promising future. “I put a couple good punches together and someone from my team yelled that he was hurt. So at that point I just tried to stay on him and not let him get away, then I caught him pulling out.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
