Washington ready to turn the heavyweight division upside-down

Former USC football player Gerald Washington was a late replacement to challenge Deontay Wilder for his heavyweight title on Saturday in Alabama

If Gerald Washington lifts the belt from Deontay Wilder when they meet on Saturday (Fox, 8 p.m. ET, with additional bouts on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 10 p.m. ET) at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, it will go down as a gargantuan upset and turn the heavyweight division on its head. Washington knows this and said he is ready to seize the moment.

"This felt like destiny. It's my time," he said this week. "We're very excited for the opportunity. Man, it's a dream come true and I look forward to fighting Deontay Wilder in his backyard for the WBC title. It's an amazing opportunity for me and we are ready to take the challenge on."

Because Washington and Wilder are both managed by Al Haymon, Washington, who fought on Wilder's last undercard, has been considered an eventual challenger. However, the opportunity for the fight now was totally unexpected.

"It was only a matter of time and it happened to come early," Washington said. "I'm grateful I stayed in the gym and I stayed prepared."

Washington took the opportunity of a lifetime on only about one month's notice. That is because Poland's Andrzej Wawrzyk, the original opponent scheduled to challenge Wilder, tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol in two random urine screens and was bounced from the fight. Two weeks later, Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) signed for the bout.

In the co-feature, Detroit's Tony Harrison (24-1, 20 KOs) and Jarrett Hurd (19-0, 13 KOs), of Accokeek, Maryland, will square off for the junior middleweight world title that Jermall Charlo vacated last week because he is moving up to middleweight.

The opening fight, a scheduled 10-rounder, will also feature heavyweights, as 2012 U.S. Olympian and former world title challenger Dominic Breazeale (17-1, 15 KOs), of Los Angeles, will meet Nigerian Izuagbe Ugonoh (17-0, 14 KOs). The Poland-born Ugonoh will be making his United States debut after fighting all of his previous bouts in New Zealand and Poland.

Washington said that even though the training camp was shorter than he would have liked, he's in good shape because he was already training, even though he had no specific fight lined up.

When Wilder-Wawrzyk was announced, Washington said he sent a message to Wilder on social media saying he would be ready to fight him if the fight fell apart. Little did he know that it would happen.

"I said, 'Hey if anything happens, I am right here.' And something did happen," Washington said. "It was crazy, man. But it happened and I am grateful for the opportunity. Is it all the time that we would have liked to prepare for a world championship fight? No. I am sure we would have liked a fuller camp. But it is OK. We are where we need to be, and we are ready to go."

Facing the 6-foot-7, 226-pound Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs), who is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and will be the huge crowd favorite, will be a significant step up in opposition for Washington. He's fought to a draw with fringe contender Amir Mansour in 2015 and followed that up with wins over two faded former world title challengers in 2016, an eight-round decision against Eddie Chambers and a fourth-round knockout of Ray Austin in July. The latter bout was on the undercard of Wilder's eighth-round knockout of Chris Arreola at Legacy Arena.

The 6-6, 245-pound Washington, 34, of Vallejo, California, is a U.S. Navy veteran and a tremendous athlete, but he came to boxing late after playing tight end and defensive end at the University of Southern California and spending time on various NFL practice squads. What he lacks in boxing experience he figures he can make up for in heart and focus.