By Jack Walsh
HEAVYWEIGHT contender Otto Wallin earned an effortless first-round knockout victory over Onoriode Ehwarieme last night in what was scheduled for an eight-round bout. The pair headlined a seven-fight card at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, hosted by Boxing Insider.
Initially assumed to be at least a competitive contest among two hungry hopefuls, both men began the fight sizing each other up, while attempting to establish their heavy jabs to gain ring control and set the competitive tone early on.
But, 48 seconds into the first round, Wallin unleashed a thrashing left hook that sent Ehwarieme to the canvas. The Nigerian beat the count but wobbled into the referee’s arms and was deemed unable to continue, ending the night in shocking fashion.
Wallin, 33, is coming off of a December TKO loss at the hands of two-time unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and was certainly in need of a confidence-boosting outing.
While the Swedish southpaw noted that he has, in fact, been working on his left hook in recent training, there was no set game plan to go for the early kill.
In the post-fight interview, Wallin explained, “I tried not to think about the knockout; I just performed to the best of my ability.”
Additionally, Wallin believes he is still a superior heavyweight and aims to keep demonstrating to fans that he is undeniably a world-class talent in a division currently ruled by Oleksandr Usyk.
Aside from Joshua, Wallin’s only other loss came by unanimous decision to Tyson Fury, who he damaged rather significantly, forcing a brutal, bloody, deep right eye gash.
“I’m still one of the top guys, and I think I showed it now, and I’m going to keep showing it and just keep climbing,” he added.
Wallin, currently ranked #11 by the IBF and #15 by the WBC, improved to 27-2 (15 KOs), with Ehwarieme dropping to 20-5 (19 KOs). While 19 out of 20 of Ehwarieme’s wins have come by knockout, all five of his losses are a result of knockouts, too.
