By Scott Gilfoid: Dominic Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) believes he won round one in his meeting with IBF heavyweight champion Antony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) today in London ahead of their fight next month on June 25. The two fighters had a couple of face offs, and during the first one, Joshua got upset at some of the things Breazeale said and with the way he was crowding him.
Breazeale noticed how flustered Joshua appeared, and he feels that the 6’6” fighter is scared because he now knows that he’s going to be in for a real dog fight on June 25 when the two of them face each other at the O2 Arena in London, England.
I think Joshua looked pretty shaken up from the encounter with Breazeale, and unfortunately, Joshua wasn’t able to regroup from it. He stayed upset instead of being able to process it and realize that he’s facing someone that believes in himself. I think Joshua is used to fighting guys that looked beaten before they’d even stepped foot in the ring. The fighters had the look of a beaten fighter before Joshua had thrown a punch.
In the case of Breazeale, he’s ultra-confident in his ability and he sees something in Joshua’s style that he feels he can capitalize on. Joshua doesn’t seem comfortable facing a guy that’s not bowing and cringing like most of his other 16 opponents have.
If Joshua is the better fighter than him, then he’s going to need to show it inside the ring on June 25, because Breazeale isn’t going to scrape the floor while bowing repeatedly in front of him in their meetings at press conferences.
“I definitely got under his skin because he was unable to walk away,” Breazeale said to skysports.com. “He got a little flustered and I don’t think he was the same throughout the day. Even after our interviews and press conference, you could still see that he was flustered, he’s definitely worried.”
Joshua will need to take some heavy shots in this fight for him to win. His promoter Eddie Hearn was bragging about his hand speed today, but I don’t think he realizes that Joshua doesn’t have fast hands. When you compare Joshua to guys that actually are fast like Deontay Wilder and David Haye, Joshua is glacial slow with his shots.
To me, the gold standard for hand speed in the heavyweight division was Mike Tyson. If you put those two side by side and compare hand speed, it’s laughable. Tyson is so much faster than Joshua that it’s not even funny. That’s why it’s kind of sad to see Eddie Hearn flapping his gums about Joshua’s so called blazing fast hand speed, because he’s not fast at all.
Breazeale is about as fast as Joshua, and Breazeale is slow. If I were Hearn, I wouldn’t be bragging about Joshua’s hand speed, because I wouldn’t want to plan crazy ideas into his head because he could get knocked out one of these days if he tries to throw what he feels are fast combinations against someone who actually is fast.
I think Hearn needs to be trumpeting Joshua’s jab, because I think that’s the best tool in his arsenal. He’s got a good jab when he actually uses it. Most of the time, Joshua just goes out and throws a flurry of slow, mechanical punches that look like arm punches and his hapless opponents fall over.
“He understands that he’s in for a dogfight. It’s one of those fights that he can’t just come out and think I am going to lay down,” said Breazeale. “At the same time, he thought that I disrespected him in his yard. I came out and shook his hand, I’m not going to bow down and praise him.”
I think Joshua is starting to realize that he’s going to get hit a lot in his fight next month by Breazeale, and I don’t think Joshua likes the idea of getting nailed by someone as big as the 6’7” American. We saw how Breazeale injured Amir Mansour with his big power shots recently in January. Mansour couldn’t come out for the 6th round.
Breazeale has the 26-year-old Joshua where he wants him mentally. You can expect Breazeale to continue to pour it on his future beatings with Joshua to put him in his place and unnerve him mentally.
A loss for Joshua in this fight will be a huge blow to his career, because Hearn is already assuming that Joshua will beat Breazeale and everyone else that comes after him. It’s going to be a shock to Hearn and Joshua that he’s not infallible.
The fight will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV. Some British fans aren’t too happy with the fight being on PPV, because they feel that only the truly huge fights should be on PPV, but it looks like all of Joshua’s fights are going to be on pay TV from now.