Breazeale says Deontay Wilder is easier day at office than Ugonoh fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Former heavyweight world title challenger Dominic Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs) has been looking at WBC champion Deontay Wilder’s fights, and he thinks it’ll be an easier job for him to beat him than it was in his last two fights against Eric Molina and Izuagbe Ugonoh. From watching Wilder’s fight against Gerald Washington last year in 2017, Breazeale says he understood that he can beat him.

Wilder had enough problems against Washington for him to realize that he has enough talent to deal the Bronze Bomber his first defeat of his career.

Breazeale says Wilder doesn’t have much in the way of fundamental boxing skills, and he’s surprised that he’s gotten this far with his pro career after capturing a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics for the U.S. Breazeale sees the 6’7” Wilder as an awkward fighter.

Breazeale is ready to take the fight with Wilder as soon as it’s offered by his management. You won’t need to ask Breazeale twice if he’s willing to fight Wilder, since he’s more than willing to take the fight, unlike Anthony Joshua. Wilder couldn’t get Joshua to agree to the more than generous $50 million offer for the fight. Breazeale is ready to take the fight with Wilder as soon as the offer is given to him, and he believes he can beat him.

Now that Anthony Joshua has decided that he doesn’t want to fight Deontay in 2018, the 32-year-old Breazeale is expected to the next opponent for ‘The Bronze Bomber.’ There’s already bad blood between Wilder and Breazeale for a run in that they had in the past, so it’s not going to take much to ignite the fire between the two. But it’s interesting that Breazeale feels that Wilder is an easier fight for him than Molina and Ugonoh, as neither of them are considered to be top level contenders in the heavyweight division.

”I was thinking that when I get my opportunity against Deontay, it’s going to be an easier day at the office than it was against Izu or Molina,” Breazeale said to premierboxingchampions.com. ”Deontay is very awkward, which is crazy knowing that he’s gotten so far being a former U.S. Olympic bronze medalist in 40 professional fights and doesn’t really have any fundamental skills,” Breazeale said.

#2 WBC Breazeale is rated behind #1 WBC Dillian Whyte in the World Boxing Council’s rankings at heavyweight. Whyte has complained recently that he should have been made the WBC mandatory by now after beating former WBA World heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Robert Helenius and Dereck Chisora. Who knows why the WBC hasn’t made Whyte the mandatory for Wilder. Browne and Helenius looked poor against Whyte, and Chisora arguably beat him. Breazeale’s victories over Ugonoh.

Breazeale talked a good game before his title challenge against Joshua in 2016, but he was no match for him. Joshua easily stopped Breazeale in the 7th round of a one-sided fight in June 2016 at the O2 Arena in London, England. If Breazeale had more punching power, he could have given Joshua a run for his money, but the power wasn’t there for him.

Breazeale is a 2012 U.S Olympic silver medalist with good size at 6’7”, and better than average punching power. Besides his wins over Ugononah and Molina, Breazeale has victories over Amir Mansour, Fred

Kassi, Yasmany Consuega and Victor Bisbal. Breazeale’s fight against Ugononah was a really tough one for him, as he was knocked down in round 4, and he barely made it out of the fight without getting knocked out. If not for Ugononah’s poor stamina, Breazeale surely would have lost that fight. It was a fight of the year type of brawl between the two towering heavyweights. The 6’5” Ugononah was landing some monstrous shots on the chin of Breazeale before he gassed out in the 5th. If Ugononah’s punch resistance was sound, he likely would have ended the fight in the 5th because he had Breazeale in all kinds of trouble in the 4th round. Unfortunately for Ugononah, he gassed out in that round and had nothing left and was easy prey for the more experienced Breazeale.

Breazeale says he’s working on his power by lifting weights, and he’s specifically trying to improve his right-hand power. Moreover, Breazeale has been sparring with fighters from the 175 and 200 lb. divisions to increase his speed to get him ready for what he’ll be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with Wilder, who has been coming into his fights lighter lately. Wilder weighed in at 214 lbs. for his last title defense against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. 214 lbs. is very low for a heavyweight world champion. Breazeale has been tipping the scales in the mid-250s for the most part since 2016, so he’ll have a huge weight advantage over Deontay.

Breazeale might outweigh Wilder by as much as 40 lbs. on the night if the two of them stick to the weights they came in for their last fights. It would be in Breazeale’s best interest to try and firm up from what he looked like against Molina in his last fight in November of last year. That’s too heavy for Breazeale to be able to match the speed and punching power of Wilder. If Wilder starts hurting Breazeale with right hands, he’s not going to get tired of punching hi the way that Ugonoh did. Breazeale cannot afford to let Wilder put hands on him the way he did against Bermane Stiverne and Luis Ortiz. Breazeale has a pretty good chin, but he’s not super human when it comes to the punishment that he’s able to absorb in his fights. Lifting weights likely won’t improve Breazeale’s punching power to any great extent. Some fighters are able to gain more punching power by hitting the weights, but many of them don’t. The added muscles that weights add to fighter’s physiques often slow them down, causing them to labor in the later rounds of the fight. Breazeale can’t afford to get tired against Wilder, because he’ll get sparked out right away.

Breazeale says he’s been sparring a lot with former world title challenger Gerald Washington. Breazeale wasn’t impressed at all of what he saw of Wilder in his 5th round knockout win over Washington in 2017. Breazeale noted that Wilder struggled in the first two rounds against Washington.

”Sitting at ringside and watching what Gerald was able to do with Deontay for the first couple of rounds, I definitely knew at that point that I could beat Deontay,” Breazeale said.” I was literally chomping at the bit. I thought maybe the first round was a flaw, but when Round 2 came, Gerald was still doing it.”

In looking back at the Wilder-Washington fight, Wilder was showing far too much respect to the 6’6” Washington in the first four rounds of the fight. Wilder looked like he was afraid to let his hands go for some reason. But when Wilder finally did start throwing punches in round 5, he immediately knocked Washington out. It was the same thing in Wilder’s last fight against Luis Ortiz. Wilder gave Ortiz too much respect in the first four rounds. When Wilder started throwing power shots in the 5th, he knocked him down. However, Wilder failed to go after Ortiz in the 6th round, and he let him off the hook. This allowed Ortiz to come back in the 7th and hurt Wilder. In round 8, Wilder was still shook up and looking weak in the legs throughout the round. It wasn’t until the 9th that Wilder started throwing his big power shots again and he was able to hurt Ortiz. In the 10th, Wilder finished off the hurt and tired Ortiz. Wilder can’t fight like that against Breazeale if he wants to win because that’s not going to work for him. Wilder needs to come out throwing power shots with mean intentions in round 1 like he did against Bermane Stiverne in their rematch last November. When Wilder is fighting like that, he’s invincible.