Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale on June 25

By Boxing News - 04/25/2016 - Comments

1-Dominic Breazeale Media Workout_Valentin Romero _ Premier Boxing Champions3By Scott Gilfoid: Well, just as I was expecting, IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title against American fringe contender Dominic Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) in his next fight on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

The Joshua-Breazeale fight will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV to UK fans. As for the U.S, it’s unclear which of the cable giants, HBO or Showtime, the will be televised on. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is in negotiations to have a TV deal for Joshua put together with one of those two U.S cable companies.

The choice of the 30-year-old Breazeale was an obvious one due to him being an American and 2012 U.S Olympian. It also doesn’t hurt that Breazeale is unbeaten at 17-0. That is where it ends. Breazeale isn’t widely known in the U.S. Unlike the UK, you are not automatically widely known in a country as large as the U.S if you compete in the Olympics. Further, Breazeale didn’t exactly do well in the 2012 Olympics. I mean, he fought one guy, Magomed Omarov from Russia, and was promptly routed by a 19-8 score and was immediately eliminated from the Olympics.

“My coaches have watched Breazeale for a long time and they knew he was going to be a player in the division and now we get the chance to go to war on June 25,” said Joshua to skysports.com. “I am looking to get past Breazeale in style and continue moving towards the unification fight everybody is waiting for.”

If Joshua beats Breazeale, there is a chance he could fight IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in November of this year in a unification fight if Fury wins his scheduled July 9 rematch against 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko.

As a pro, Breazeale has fought 15 weak opponents and two decent ones in Amir Mansour and Fred Kassi. Breazeale won a very, very questionable 10 round decision over the journeyman Kassi last September on the Deontay Wilder vs. Johann Duhaupas card in Birmingham, Alabama. I saw the fight and had Kassi winning by six rounds to four score. I thought it was a simple robbery.

Breazeale looked absolutely horrible in that fight. I couldn’t believe he fought in the Olympics because he looked like someone that had put on gloves for the first time in his life. Kassi dominated him and was nailing him with hard shots all night long. In Breazeale’s last fight against 43-year-old Amir Mansour earlier this year in January, Breazeale was dropped on the canvas in the 3rd round.

Things were looking bleak for Breazeale when Mansour bowed out of the fight after the 5th round due to an injury. As such, Breazeale is still unbeaten but so, so flawed. I can’t believe this guy is getting a world title shot. This is going to be bad, I just know it. Joshua has a showcase fight against an easy mark and it’ll likely be televised on HBO or Showtime in the States. I think that’s bad television for U.S fans.

“June 25 is going to be a huge night from start to finish. It’s great that Britain’s newest superstar is staying active. Many would have still been celebrating but it’s back to business for AJ,” said Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to skysports.com.

In the co-feature bout on the Joshua-Breazeale Sky Box Office PPV card will be two down in their luck struggling super middleweights in George Groves and Martin Murray going at it in a fight to try and stay relevant in the 168lb division. Both guys have had multiple title shots in the last five years, and both have failed.

Surprisingly, Groves is still ranked incredibly high by the World Boxing Council at #2 despite losing repeatedly in failed title shots in the last two years. I’m not sure that this is a great bargain for boxing fans having to pay to see the Joshua vs. Breazeale card on PPV. I personally see the Groves-Murray fight as more of an off TV type of fight.

At best, I see this fight as the first fight on the televised portion of the card, but definitely not co-feature. If I’m paying hard-earned cash to see a fight card on PPV, I don’t want to see struggling fighters in the co-feature. I want to see talent in the co-feature, preferably unbeaten talent. The last time I checked, Groves and Murray aren’t unbeaten. As such, I see this as not a good fight for PPV.

“The fight with Breazeale is going to be explosive – he is 6’7” and is one of the few whose KO ratio is up there with Anthony’s. He has come through the similar elite amateur set up and has worked his way into this shot and is ready to go,” said Hearn.

I wouldn’t say that Breazeale was an elite amateur. He fought in the Olympics and was beaten immediately. That’s not elite in my book. As for Breazeale’s high KO ratio that Hearn is fawning over, most of the wins are against guys that I have never heard of in my life. The only guy that I’ve heard of in Breazeale’s list of KO wins is Mansour, and the only reason he got a KO win over him was due to the 43-year-old suffering an injury.

Mansour was doing quite well against Breazeale up until the tiume that the injury occurred. I think Mansour would have wound up knocking Breazeale out in short order if the fight had gone much longer.

Joshua didn’t have much to choose from for his June 25 fight at the O2. Hearn gave him a list of the following three fighters for him to pick from: Bermane Stiverne, Breazeale and Eric Molina. It was said that Johann Duhaupas was added to the list last week. I am not sure if that’s true or not. Molina and Stiverne are a couple of older fighters that are more gatekeepers than contenders. They were both beaten last year by Deontay Wilder.

If Joshua had fought them, he would have looked like someone who was performing mop up work behind Deontay. I’m not surprised that Joshua didn’t choose to fight them. Those were terrible choices by Hearn. But I also think Breazeale is an awful choice too considering how bad he’s looked in his last two fights. If Breazeale would go back and fight Kassi and Mansour again to show he can look better against them, then I could see him as a reasonable, but not great, choice to fight for a world title. But with the way Breazeale looked in those fights, I think he’s an awful choice to be fighting Joshua.