KISSIMMEE, Florida (CMC) – Guyana’s former world boxing champion Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite returned to winning form by beating Mexico’s Gustavo Enriquez on a seventh-round technical knockout in their non-title cruiserweight bout on Saturday night.
Inactive since September 2005, the 31-year-old ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite overcame a spirited challenge from Enriquez and pounded his opponent into submission at two minutes 56 seconds of round seven at the Silver Spurs Arena.
“I am excited, I did not fight in like 16 months, so it was really good to be fighting again,” Braithwaite told CMC Sport.
With the win, Braithwaite improved his record to 22 wins (18 knockouts) against two defeats, and Enriquez slipped to 15 wins (12 knockouts) against seven defeats.
The result also broke a two-fight losing streak for the former World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight king.
“I feel good, I feel really good right now,” Braithwaite added in the CMC interview.
Gustavo's left eye was badly cut from an accidental clash of heads in the first round but he was able to continue because and his corner got the bleeding under control.
Looking a little rusty from his near year and a half lay-off, Braithwaite took some good shots from Enriquez but was not really threatened and took control after the fourth round.
Braithwaite, now being trained by Guyanese Dillon Carew, came in at his heaviest career fight weight of 197-3/4 pounds.
He unleashed some powerful shots and had Enriquez in big trouble late in the seventh, forcing referee Jorge Alonzo to stop the bout.
Braithwaite had lost his last two fights, a unanimous decision to Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck in an April 2005 World Boxing Association (WBA) and WBC unification match, followed by a contentious fourth-round knockout loss to Panamanian Guillermo Jones in September 2005 in a WBA title eliminator.
In three world title fights on the card, undefeated Chad Dawson won the WBC light-heavyweight title by beating defending champion Tomasz Adamek, of Poland; Julio Diaz took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight title when defending champion Jesus Chavez on a third round TKO; and Cory Spinks successfully defended his IBF junior middleweight title by out-pointing Rodney Jones.