by Tanya Hill, who was ringside

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) retained his title with an eighth round TKO over Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) on Saturday night at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama in front over 11,000 fans as he continued his rise to stardom. Wilder dropped Arreola in round four, but an injury to his bicep Wilder accredited with the reason the bout went four extra rounds as it took a doctor stoppage in the eighth to end the bout. This was televised main event of the Fox broadcast.

In a 10-round battle between welterweight southpaws,Felix Diaz (18-1, 8 KO) upset Sammy Vasquez (21-1, 15 KO) who now no longer has undefeated record. Vasquez. In a fight in which Diaz’s experience in the amateurs showed as Vasquez was constantly off rhythm and unable to adjust saw a late point deduction be the deciding point of the bout.Vasquez spit his mouthpiece out for the third time in the final round which cost him a point, which proved costly.

The bout was scored a draw at first, but thanks to a scoring error in the final round it was awarded to Diaz. The final scores were 96-93 and 95-94 two times.

Vic Darchinyan (42-9-1, 31 KO) is looking to make a comeback as he brutally stopped Sergio Frias (18-6-2, 9 KO) with a little under a minute left in the second round.

Welterweight Jamal James (20-0, 9 KOs) survived a scare as he made it out of the fight despite being dropped in the first round as he picked up a split decision over Wale Omotoso (26-3, 21 KOs). The judges saw the bout 96-93 Omotoso, 97-92, 96-94 for James.

Junior middleweight Erickson Lubin (16-0, 11 KO) continued to impress as he dominated Ivan Montero (20-2, 8 KO) through all eight rounds on his way to a shutout victory.

Heavyweight Gerald Washington (18-0, 12 KO) stopped Ray Austin (29-8-4, 18 KO) in the fourth round of their bout.

Ryan Martin (15-0, 9 KO) picked up a workman like decision over Samuel Amoako (21-12, 15 KO) with the scores of 60-54 on all cards

In the fourth meeting of  Layla McCarter (38-13-5, 9 KO) and Melissa Hernandez (22-7-3, 7 KO) saw a good action fight with McCarter getting the nod by way of decision with the  scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 78-74.