Breazeale wants Wilder an Fury after Joshua fight

By Boxing News - 06/09/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Dominic Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) has two names in mind in who he wants to fight if he can get past IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) on June 25 this month at the O2 Arena in London, England. Breazeale wants to face WBC champion Deontay Wilder and IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a unification fight if the two of them are still champions after their next fights.

Wilder defends his WBC title against Chris Arreola on July 16. Fury will be defending his titles against Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Breazeale, 30, is an underdog for his fight against Joshua, and he’s going to need to be able to raise his game to a higher level than what he showed in his last several fights against Amir Mansour and Fred Kassi. Those are the best fighters Breazeale has faced thus far since turning pro several years ago, and he did not look like responded well to being put in with better competition. That doesn’t mean that Breazeale won’t be able to do well against Joshua on June 25.

It’s possible that Breazeale’s last fight against Mansour has acclimatized him to fighting first tier opposition. What’s important for Breazeale is not to start slowly against Joshua like he did against Mansour, because if he gets knocked down early like he did in that fight, it won’t be good for him. Joshua will likely finish him off with a flurry of shots. Heck, even if Joshua doesn’t knock Breazeale out in the clinical sense, I think we could see the referee step in and stop the fight simply because Joshua is the one throwing all the punches.

“After I get done beating Anthony Joshua and taking his IBF title, I want to fight a guy like Deontay Wilder. I want to fight a guy like Tyson Fury if he still has the belts… or Klitschko,” said Breazeale to skysports.com.

Beating Joshua, 6’6”, won’t be easy for Breazeale. The British heavyweight has a good chin and excellent punching power. Joshua goes right after his opponents and tries to KO them quickly in the first few rounds. Breazeale will need good defensive skills for him not to wind up getting knocked out in this fight like the other fighters that Joshua. Only one fighter has ever made it to the 7th round against Joshua and that was Dillian Whyte last December. Whyte took a lot of heavy shots to get that far in the fight.

Fury and Wilder would probably like the idea of fighting Breazeale because he’s not looked solid in many of his fights. He’s got a lot of flaws in his game, which doesn’t appear to be things that he’ll be able to change anytime soon. Breazeale would be better off fighting Joshua in a rematch if he beats him rather than fighting Wilder. If he can get a fight against Fury, it would be a good payday for Breazeale. That should be the fight he looks for if he can beat Joshua and if Fury defeats Klitschko on July 9.

“I’ve always said I want to fight the best of the best if I’m going to be recognized as the best and go down in the history books then I have to fight the best and if that’s me fighting the guy who has the next belt and the next belt by all means let’s do it,” said Breazeale.

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Breazeale has knocked out six out of his last seven opponents he’s faced in the last two years. The only fighter that was able to go the distance with Breazeale was journeyman Fred Kassi last September. Breazeale won the fight by a 10 round decision, but it was a controversial one. Kassi used his defensive skills to make Breazeale miss with his power shots throughout the fight, and he was able to connect with his big single shots to the head and body.

Breazeale definitely has the punching power to send Joshua down to his first defeat of his career. If Breazeale can deliver his artillery in an all-out assault in the first six rounds, I think there’s a very, very good chance that he blows Joshua to smithereens. Never the less, if Breazeale, 30, fights timidly by standing and waiting around and not throwing punches like we saw with Charles Martin in his fight against Joshua, then I see him getting smashed quickly.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to beat Joshua. All you do is watch Joshua’s fights against Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle from the amateur ranks to see how you beat him. All the heavy-handed Cammarelle did was go right after Joshua in the first round, throwing nonstop head shots. Joshua struggled badly in his two fights with Cammerelle and won two very, very controversial decisions. The scoring for those fights were poor in my view. I had Cammarelle winning both fights by a wide score.