Joshua first defence vs Dominic Breazeale

[Bard of Boxrec]

Tony Thompson is in probably worse shape than Briggs now and he put Scott on his ass in their last fight with a nothing punch that clipped his ear. Scott is woeful.

He might be woeful, but he'd still be Joshua's best opponent by far.

Which counts for absolutely nothing when you consider what Joshua would do to him.

[Ricky_]

Tony Thompson is in probably worse shape than Briggs now and he put Scott on his ass in their last fight with a nothing punch that clipped his ear. Scott is woeful.

He might be woeful, but he'd still be Joshua's best opponent by far.

You are vastly over-rating Scott, Whyte would smash Scott up.

[Horse]

Which counts for absolutely nothing when you consider what Joshua would do to him.

It would count for a lot.

Joshua would be destroying someone decent for a change (if he could).

[Horse]

You are vastly over-rating Scott, Whyte would smash Scott up.

Whyte is an unknown quantity.

I would favour Scott.

[ikorolev]

They will have Groves vs Murray on the undercard.

[Tony1244]

Smart to fight an undefeated guy who isn't very good. Remember, even though Joshua has a strap, he is still on the way up.

He cleared up Whtye and Cornish from England, now AJ is clearing out a couple undefeated American HWs. I see nothing wrong with this. The Furys and Wilders are down the road in the not too distant future.

[lckov]

Out of interest, who would you have personally liked to see him fight who is in the ibf 15 and thus qualifies as a mandatory challenger?

He had four real options, onr of which, Duhaupas, was considered by some articles last week as being a Far too poor an option to sell, seeing as Helenius dominated against him before the KO. That left three Americans, and the highest rated of thise is Molina. Now when i suggested Molina woube a step up on what Joshua had already fought I was laughed at on here.

Putting yourself in matchroom's shoes, this fight therefore makes the most sense. It is a money making stepping stone before he fights the winner of Takam vs Parker.

[Horse]

Smart to fight an undefeated guy who isn't very good. Remember, even though Joshua has a strap, he is still on the way up.

He cleared up Whtye and Cornish from England, now AJ is clearing out a couple undefeated American HWs. I see nothing wrong with this. The Furys and Wilders are down the road in the not too distant future.

Whyte and Cornish were unproven fighters and Joshua didn't come close to cleaning up the domestic scene even if we leave out Fury and Haye.

[tigermoth87]

What a shock. The fraud finds a bum opponent. Breazeale isn't even top 20.

I'd say that he is top 30, but only because he technically got the win against Mansour. A fight in which Breazeale was getting dominated.

Breazeale might not even be top 50 abilitywise.

I'd forgotten but someone pointed out in another thread that Breazeale is the same guy who needed a gift decision to beat Kassi who Hughie is fighting next. He really does seem even worse than I said.

[Tony1244]

Smart to fight an undefeated guy who isn't very good. Remember, even though Joshua has a strap, he is still on the way up.

He cleared up Whtye and Cornish from England, now AJ is clearing out a couple undefeated American HWs. I see nothing wrong with this. The Furys and Wilders are down the road in the not too distant future.

Whyte and Cornish were unproven fighters and Joshua didn't come close to cleaning up the domestic scene even if we leave out Fury and Haye.

Name these names. Hughie is still quite young. I see Joshua and Parker as the 2 top HW prospects.

[Tony1244]

What a shock. The fraud finds a bum opponent. Breazeale isn't even top 20.

Abilitywise Breazeale is somewhere between something like 25-50. True. Still a good fight for AJ who technically is still on the way up and should pad his record with a couple Breazeales, Kassis' before taking on the top 2 to 3 guys.

[Horse]

Name these names. Hughie is still quite young. I see Joshua and Parker as the 2 top HW prospects.

He didn't fight Chisora, Price, H. Fury, Sexton, McDermott or Towers.

Obviously only the first few really matter, but he can't be said to have cleaned out the domestic scene at all.

[tigermoth87]

What a shock. The fraud finds a bum opponent. Breazeale isn't even top 20.

Abilitywise Breazeale is somewhere between something like 25-50. True. Still a good fight for AJ who technically is still on the way up and should pad his record with a couple Breazeales, Kassis' before taking on the top 2 to 3 guys.

There are better opponents though than this buffoon. I'm not asking him to jump in with the top 5 in the division. Not even the top 10 just yet.

Just someone who will actually make it a competitive fight rather than a joke been paid to get knocked out. Hughie Fury is fighting a better opponent in Kassi since Breazeale needed a gift decision over him, Kassi was dominating Mansour before the stoppage (whereas Mansour was outboxing Breazeale before the stoppage) and should have got the nod vs Arreola.

Then again, the major issue is IBF ranking jokes like Martin, Breazeale and Jarrell Miller in the first place...

[jezzamundo]

Breazeale isn't deserving of a title shot, but given the short notice, we shouldn't be too surprised. He can hit and will have a puncher's chance, but that's about it.

[Tony1244]

Name these names. Hughie is still quite young. I see Joshua and Parker as the 2 top HW prospects.

He didn't fight Chisora, Price, H. Fury, Sexton, McDermott or Towers.

Obviously only the first few really matter, but he can't be said to have cleaned out the domestic scene at all.

Joshua vs Chinachin Price, Sexton, McDermott (is he still fighting?) and Towers would be a joke. Chisora is a solid guy and better than Breazeale, but he has a date with Pulev that I think he can win. I didn't mean to infer that AJ cleaned out either country but Whyte, Cornish, Martin and Breazeale is a good start.

[Horse]

Joshua vs Chinachin Price, Sexton, McDermott (is he still fighting?) and Towers would be a joke.

Joshua vs Price wouldn't be a joke.

Chisora is a solid guy and better than Breazeale, but he has a date with Pulev that I think he can win. I didn't mean to infer that AJ cleaned out either country but Whyte, Cornish, Martin and Breazeale is a good start.

It's a start, but that's about it.

[Tony1244]

What a shock. The fraud finds a bum opponent. Breazeale isn't even top 20.

Abilitywise Breazeale is somewhere between something like 25-50. True. Still a good fight for AJ who technically is still on the way up and should pad his record with a couple Breazeales, Kassis' before taking on the top 2 to 3 guys.

There are better opponents though than this buffoon. I'm not asking him to jump in with the top 5 in the division. Not even the top 10 just yet.

Just someone who will actually make it a competitive fight rather than a joke been paid to get knocked out. Hughie Fury is fighting a better opponent in Kassi since Breazeale needed a gift decision over him, Kassi was dominating Mansour before the stoppage (whereas Mansour was outboxing Breazeale before the stoppage) and should have got the nod vs Arreola.

Then again, the major issue is IBF ranking jokes like Martin, Breazeale and Jarrell Miller in the first place...

Can't argue about that. The 3 guys you mentioned are all fun to keep an eye on, but having them ranked in the top 15 is patently ridiculous. Unfortunately, bogus rankings are nothing new.

[Lennox]

Clearly a lot of you don't know your boxing. Dominic Breazeale is a good first defence. He is a top 20 boxer with a good amateur pedigree and undefeated prospect with two top 50 wins.

Whilst you may not think that is much, everyone else is pretty much tied up and options are limited with the WBC situation. The IBF eliminators and the WBA tournament.

To make the big money fights more it needs work, time and hype. These fights will come later.

[Horse]

Clearly a lot of you don't know your boxing. Dominic Breazeale is a good first defence. He is a top 20 boxer with a good amateur pedigree and undefeated prospect with two top 50 wins.

Whilst you may not think that is much, everyone else is pretty much tied up and options are limited with the WBC situation. The IBF eliminators and the WBA tournament.

To make the big money fights more it needs work, time and hype. These fights will come later.

No, he is rubbish.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Good solid first defense. Breazeale has a ton of heart and some pop. He may have a moment or two. Much better chance than Scott.

[BitPlayer]

Clearly a lot of you don't know your boxing. Dominic Breazeale is a good first defence. He is a top 20 boxer with a good amateur pedigree and undefeated prospect with two top 50 wins.

Whilst you may not think that is much, everyone else is pretty much tied up and options are limited with the WBC situation. The IBF eliminators and the WBA tournament.

To make the big money fights more it needs work, time and hype. These fights will come later.

He only won that last fight because his opponent bit his tongue, lost every round and got dropped, a lot of people consider his win before that a gift. And fair enough having an easy defence if you won the title in a hard fight, but he didn't, he needs harder fights if he's going to actually get better. This is just a big low level fighter he can blast out to make him look good, especially since they can hype him up as undefeated, if he's to have any hope against the likes of Fury he needs to learn to deal with decent spoilers. Though I do get his belt restricts him now, which means it could do way more harm than good by stalling him, then throwing him in the deep end.

[gilgamesh]

Joshua is pretty much all but guaranteed a 1st or 2nd round KO here. Breazeale is slow as all hell, and easy to hit.

[Lennox]

Clearly a lot of you don't know your boxing. Dominic Breazeale is a good first defence. He is a top 20 boxer with a good amateur pedigree and undefeated prospect with two top 50 wins.

Whilst you may not think that is much, everyone else is pretty much tied up and options are limited with the WBC situation. The IBF eliminators and the WBA tournament.

To make the big money fights more it needs work, time and hype. These fights will come later.

He only won that last fight because his opponent bit his tongue, lost every round and got dropped, a lot of people consider his win before that a gift. And fair enough having an easy defence if you won the title in a hard fight, but he didn't, he needs harder fights if he's going to actually get better. This is just a big low level fighter he can blast out to make him look good, especially since they can hype him up as undefeated, if he's to have any hope against the likes of Fury he needs to learn to deal with decent spoilers. Though I do get his belt restricts him now, which means it could do way more harm than good by stalling him, then throwing him in the deep end.

I don't disagree with your analysis that Joshua will win fairly easily. I remember the Mansour fight, he was certainly losing the fight. I am making the point that there are not many options if you look at the IBF top 15
1. Not rated
2. Not rated
3. Erkam Teper (Suspended)
4. Carlos Takam (Fighting an eliminator v Parker)
5. Joe Parker (Fighting an eliminator v Takam
6. Kubrat Pulev (Fighting Chisora in an eliminator)
7. Czar Glazkov (injured out till end of year)
8. Dereck Chisora (Fighting Pulev in an eliminator)
9. Andy Ruiz
10. Charles Martin (been there done that)
11. Johan Duhaupas
12. David Haye (fight scheduled)
13. Dominic Brezeale
14. Eric Molina
15. Jarrell Miller
Stiverne is a possible he has been recently ranked by the IBF
It is a decent fight for his first defence, but in fairness the great fights are not there at the moment but maybe by the end of the year.

[crusader]

Breazeale would lose to Martin IMO...I don't think he should've done better than a draw against Kassi and I had him well down against the limited Mansour. He's painfully slow, clumsy, pretty easy to hit, and while some have mentioned his power he only has cumulative pop, not one shot type of stuff that makes him a danger to Joshua.

[PredatorHayds]

Not a bad first defence.

He has a punchers chance and Matchroom can use the unbeaten American and Olympian tags to sell it to the casual fan.