By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten American heavyweight Dominic Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) doesn’t believe IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) will be able to turn back the threat and beat the 6’6” former world champion Wladimir “Steelhammer” Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) in their rematch next month on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
Breazeale thinks the 27-year-old Fury doesn’t rate as a legitimate champion, and he sees him folding in the rematch. Breazeale isn’t the only one who expects the 6’9” Fury to lose. There are many boxing fans that see Fury losing the rematch, because he barely beat Klitschko in winning by a 12 round unanimous decision by the following scores: 115-112, 116-111 and 115-112.
It wasn’t so much what Fury did to beat Klitschko last November. It was more of a case of what Klitschko failed to do rather than what Fury did. Wladimir was fighting too cautiously by not throwing shots, and he gave the fight away by not throwing punches. The fight was EXTREMELY winnable for Wladimir, but he couldn’t work up the nerve to throw punches. This time around, Wladimir will definitely be throwing shots, and I can’t see Fury being able to take those shots for more than four or five rounds without him nose-diving into the canvas for the 10 count.
“Unfortunately, not too long ago a guy like Klitschko lost to a guy like Tyson Fury and I don’t think a guy like Tyson Fury deserves, understand or respects the fact that he is a champion. I think that next time around Klitschko is going to do what he has to do to get his belts back,” said Breazeale to skysports.com.
I totally agree with Breazeale. I think Klitschko will do what he needs to do for him to get the victory on July 9. Wladimir will come out throwing right hands, because he knows by now that he can’t land his jabs and left hooks with the way that Fury leans away from anything thrown his way. The only punches Wladimir has any chance of landing are right hands, and that’s only if he is capable of reloading after he misses with his initial right hand.
Wladimir will obviously fall forward when throwing his right hand. He needs to have the brains to throw another right hand when he’s in close rather than instinctively grabbing Fury in a clinch, and waiting for the referee to dutifully pull them apart to reset them at center ring. That’s what Wladimir was doing last time he fought Fury, except he was frequently clinching without even throwing a punch. It was really pathetic to watch.
Wladimir was wasting time trying to throw jabs and left hooks, when it was painfully obvious that he had no hope of connecting with any of those shots. The only thing Wladimir was able to land were right hands, and he wouldn’t throw them because it involved timing, accuracy and a certain amount of risk.
“Klitschko has been a very successful guy in professional boxing and for him to lose the way he did was very discouraging but if he didn’t think he could beat a guy like Tyson Fury then he wouldn’t have taken the rematch so I think he is coming back with a vengeance for sure,” said Breazeale.
Breazeale is right about Wladimir in his decision to take the rematch. Wladimir has never had rematches with guys that he didn’t think he could beat the second time around. We saw Wladimir his knockout loss to Lamon Brewster 10 years ago. What we didn’t see was Wladimir facing Corrie Sanders and Ross Puritty in rematches after those two fighters knocked him out. It seems pretty obvious why.
The southpaw Sanders had too much speed and power for Wladimir to have a good chance of beating him. Puritty was too big, too strong and too steel-chinned for Wladimir to have had any chance of beating him the second time around. It’s a good thing Wladimir didn’t fight Puritty again because I think it would have went badly for him. But with the feather-fisted Fury, Wladimir has an excellent chance of beating him and beating in an impressive fashion.
It’s mental with Wladimir. If he’s willing to fight in an aggressive manner and throw right hands like he did earlier in his career, then he blows Fury out of there. But if he fights in the same timid rabbit-like manner that he did last November, then he’ll definitely lose to Fury a second time. It’s really up to Wladimir. He must conquer his fears and go after Fury to win the fight.
I do think the 40-year-old Wladimir has lost his accuracy, timing and some of his hand-eye coordination with him aging. He doesn’t have the accuracy with his punches that he did earlier in his career, and that’s obviously not something he’ll be able to fix in the rematch. But even if Wladimir can’t hit the side of a barn with his shots, he can still knock Fury out cold if he throws a massive amount of right hands. Even if Wladimir misses with 99% of his power shots, I still see him knocking Fury out with the 1% he lands.
I think the 6’7” Breazeale would beat Fury without any problems if/when the two of them face each other. Breazeale is an aggressive heavyweight that likes to throw right hands. He’s not afraid to get hit when he’s throwing shots, and he doesn’t hold back timidly the way that we saw Wladimir do against Fury. I think Breazeale would knock Fury out fairly early if he got a chance to fight him. It’s a bad style match-up for Fury against a guy with the size, the aggression, power, and the willingness to let his hands go the way that Breazeale does.
Breazeale, 30, will be challenging IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) for his title this month on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London, England. While it’s true that Breazeale is an underdog in this contest, he’s a live dog and has a chance of pulling off the upset due to his size and right hand power. Breazeale’s aggressiveness, power, confidence and size gives him an excellent chance of sending Joshua twirling downwards to his first defeat of his three-year pro career on June 25. It won’t be big news for me when/if Joshua loses because he’s still the same fighter that won a controversial gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. Joshua is just heavier and slower than he was back in 2012. I think Joshua was a better fighter before he went into the Olympics back in 2009, when he weighed only 220. He’s now 30 pounds heavier and much slower and easier to hit.