By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn is convinced that WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will be defending his title against #2 WBC Dominic Breazeale in his next fight in June or July rather than facing IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs).
Hearn states that he was ready to start putting a fight together between Joshua and Wilder after AJ’s win over WBO champion Joseph Parker (24-1, 18 KOs) last Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales, but now he’s going to be forced to wait until the end of this year to try and make the Joshua-Wilder fight.
Hearn says the Wilder fight MUST happen before 2019, because all Joshua’s mandatory defenses will be do at that time, and all the belts won’t be on the line any longer.
”Wilder’s going to fight Breazeale next,” Hearn said to the dailystar.co.uk. “There’s no doubt about that because the IBF ordered a final eliminator between Pulev and Breazeale and Breazeale pulled out because he’s going to fight Wilder next.”
It’s more likely that Breazeale is being positioned by Wilder’s management as a backup Plan-B option in case the fight negotiations for the Joshua fight fail to produce a fight. You’ve got to have a good backup plan. We already know what Hearn’s backup plan for Joshua is. He’ll match him against American Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller or possibly Alexander Povetkin.
It’s more likely Miller, 29, will get the shot, because Hearn is talking about wanting Povetkin to face his Matchroom Boxing stable fighter Dillian Whyte in June. If Hearn wanted Povetkin as Joshua’s next opponent, he wouldn’t be talking about putting the Russian heavyweight in with Whyte. It’s unfortunate that Hearn isn’t going all out to try and make the fight with Wilder for the summer, because by waiting on that fight, he’s increasing the chances that it might not happen while both guys are still heavyweight champions. Either Wilder or Joshua could lose eventually. Joshua looked beatable, very beatable, against Parker, and Wilder almost lost to Luis Ortiz. The fight needs to happen soon, because neither fighter has a strong hold on their heavyweight belts the way Joe Louis did during his reign as a heavyweight champion in the 1930s and 1940s.
Hearn has the chance to make the fight with Wilder if he’d pick up the phone and make him an offer. Hearn has been saying that Wilder hasn’t made an offer for the Joshua. Hearn is putting it on Wilder and sounding very helpless and uninterested in making that fight. That comment alone from Hearn that Wilder isn’t making an offer suggests that he’s not eager to make the Joshua-Wilder fight. Did Hearn say the same thing before making the Parker and Takam fights? Did he complain that those guys didn’t call him up and make an offer? Hearn’s excuses sound weak.
You can’t blame Wilder for wanting to fight the 2012 U.S Olympian Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs) next in the summer. That’s a good fight, and it’s one that the American boxing fans will love to see. Where was Joshua when last year when Wilder wanted to fight him? Instead of Joshua signing for a fight with Wilder, he wasted time fighting Carlos Takam last October. Last weekend, Joshua fought WBO champion Joseph Parker instead of Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs). It’s not as if Joshua hasn’t been playing a major part as well in his fight with Wilder not taking place. If Joshua is just going to target other guys instead of Wilder, then of course the fight isn’t going to take place. It just shows that Joshua’s priorities are different right now. He’s interested in fighting in Cardiff, Wales nowadays, and not coming over to the U.S to fight Wilder.
“So why pull out if he had nothing else on? The answer is because he’s fighting Deontay Wilder,” Hearn said of Breazeale pulling out of his IBF title eliminator bout against Pulev. “Our fight with Wilder would not take place until November or December.”
Hearn feels there are too many people for him to have to deal with in trying to put together a fight against Wilder. Wilder has several managers that Hearn to choose from to try and put a fight together. He says he prefers working with Al Haymon, because he’s worked with him before and it’s been easy dealing with him. Wilder’s management team consists of Haymon, Shelly Finkel and Jay Deas.
Even if the Wilder vs. Joshua fight doesn’t take place in 2018, it’s not a big deal. If Joshua vacates some of his heavyweight titles to avoid meaningless title defenses, it won’t matter to the boxing fans. They can’t care whether Joshua has 3 or even none. At this point, titles no longer matter for Joshua. He’s going to be popular with his British boxing fans whether he has a title or not. Hearn is too fixated on the legacy junk, and that’s a waste of time. Most boxing fans don’t bother looking back at the history books when they read about fighters and what they’ve accomplished.
Hearn should just have focused on making the best fights and stop wasting time having Joshua go after all the titles. The fans just want to see Joshua face Wilder. Joshua would be better off dumping all of his titles, because all they’re going to do is force him to make a lot of dull title defenses against weak opposition. We saw how Wladimir Klitschko’s career was slowed down with all his mandatories against lackluster heavyweight talent. If Wladimir had just dumped the titles, he could have fought more meaningful fights.
“When I see a guy like Wilder fight, especially in his last fight against a guy that is fundamentally sound in Luis Ortiz, he falls apart,” Breazeale said to Fighthub. “He’s not there when it’s time to be there as a standout heavyweight amateur Olympian. He’s not decorated that way. He doesn’t go back to his norm. He doesn’t go back to his right form. He always goes with the crazy circus going on, and I definitely feel like I’m the better man. I’m definitely the bigger, stronger, faster guy,” Breazeale said.
Breazeale and Wilder are both 6’7”. Going by the weights for their last fights, Breazeale has a 40 lb. weight advantage over Wilder. However, Wilder’s last opponent Luis Ortiz had a huge weight advantage over him in their fight on March 3, and he still was knocked out. Wilder’s power is more than enough to knockout a heavyweight even in the 260s. All that weight doesn’t protect a heavyweight’s head any better than a fighter much lighter. Wilder being unorthodox with his fighting style makes him harder to deal with because there aren’t any heavyweights around that fight like that, so it’s hard to get to prepare for a fighter like Wilder. He does everything differently, and his punches come from odd angles, especially when he’s throwing his windmill power shots. Those shots are hard to see because they come from a wide angle and they have a lot of power on them. Wilder has more power on his punches when he throws them straight but getting hit with a looping punch from Wilder can be devastating because his opponents often don’t see it coming.
At this point all I need is my shot,” Breazeale said. I’m just waiting for my next fight to happen. There’s talk of my next fight happening in July. I’m the WBC mandatory, so I’m waiting to get my shot at Wilder,” Breazeale said.