Joshua first defence vs Dominic Breazeale

[Lackeos]

This fight is only 2 months and 2 weeks after his previous fight, so this is really nothing to complain about. If he waited 10-11 months to fight no one better than Breazeale, then it would be worth a little concern, but Breazeale is still his second best opponent. You definitely have to be patient given that he's being really active and beating decent opposition relative to his progression. Even Wilder has made title defenses against fighters like Eric Molina. Even the Klitschkos have made title defenses against fighters like Francesco Pianeta and Shannon Briggs. At the rate Joshua is going, if he beats Martin, Breazeale, and 2 other dudes all in the same year, it'll be a pretty decent year; or Martin, Breazeale, and 1 more top 15 guy.

[bigman1968]

This fight is only 2 months and 2 weeks after his previous fight, so this is really nothing to complain about. If he waited 10-11 months to fight no one better than Breazeale, then it would be worth a little concern, but Breazeale is still his second best opponent. You definitely have to be patient given that he's being really active and beating decent opposition relative to his progression. Even Wilder has made title defenses against fighters like Eric Molina. Even the Klitschkos have made title defenses against fighters like Francesco Pianeta and Shannon Briggs. At the rate Joshua is going, if he beats Martin, Breazeale, and 2 other dudes all in the same year, it'll be a pretty decent year; or Martin, Breazeale, and 1 more top 15 guy.

2 months after what fight??? You call the disgrace against Martin a fight???

[Freedom2013]

It's good when a fighter remains active, especially if he's winning easily in the early rounds.

I think Joshua will clean out the heavyweight division in the next few years.

Right now, Breazeale may be as good as anyone who is available for a first title defense.

Later he'll have the winner of Chisora-Pulev and winner of Parker-Takam. And then there are unifications with the winner of Klitschko-Fury and the winner of Povetkin-Wilder. Then there's Luis Ortiz.

[SteveO]

It's good when a fighter remains active, especially if he's winning easily in the early rounds.

I think Joshua will clean out the heavyweight division in the next few years.

Right now, Breazeale may be as good as anyone who is available for a first title defense.

Later he'll have the winner of Chisora-Pulev and winner of Parker-Takam. And then there are unifications with the winner of Klitschko-Fury and the winner of Povetkin-Wilder. Then there's Luis Ortiz.

Exactly
There's plenty of good stuff to come - we just have to be patient.
Joshua is right to keep busy in the meantime.

[marvelous marv]

Breazeale was being outboxed by Consuegra before the stoppage. Should have lost to Kassi, and was able to escape Mansour due a freak injury.

I am not sure this guy makes the list of top ten US heavyweights amongst a weak crop of candidates.

[punchoutsb]

Joshua deserves an easy outing after that slugfest against Martin

Breazeale is a crap opponent, but undefeated records sell. It also looks like he was the highest available "contender" not named Andy Ruiz or Johan Duhaupas. Would have liked to see the Frenchman get it but that's boxing.

[jas80s]

I suppose I don't have a big problem with his choice here. He didn't exactly have a ton of options and a stay active fight never hurt anybody, or boxing as a whole.

What should truly scare fight fans is this. Joshua is going to make a PILE of money for this fight (at minimum risk); he will sell out the building, he'll see some money for TV, and he doesn't exactly have to throw a bunch of money at DB either. What's more, he can do this exact thing OVER AND OVER again while casual fans devour his highlight reel KO's and boxing dorks (like us) whine on internet forums about how no fighters take risks anymore. OVER...and OVER...and OVER again. Get comfortable guys, it may be a bit before he sees the value in a truly dangerous fight.

Why exactly does he NEED to even take a risk??? I have said it before and I will say it again....there is entirely too much money to be made in boxing if you can create a crowd pleasing brand that appeals to casual fans who enjoy a scrap that, more often than not, finishes with an explosive KO....Joshua is a walking cash register all on his own.

I hope to God I am wrong.

[asdfjkl]

Well, let's get real, pretty much all of the boxers who have a chance against him, Fury, Klitschko, Parker, Povetkin, are all busy atm anyway and some of them even still are after this fight happened. Only Ortiz was availeble, but he wasn't ranked high.

[Leonid]

It is not a good defence and the only reasonable excuse is that it is happening soon after the previous fight. And this excuse only applies to those who really wanna see Joshua in action. I'm pretty confident in what is going to happen in this fight, so i'm not gonna watch it.

I don't buy it that they didn't have better options since IMO they could easily get Haye (ranked by IBF and he probably would be ok to skip his currently planned stay busy fight) or Ortiz (WBA interim champ, so it doesn't matter that he is not ranked by IBF) if they wanted to.

Its not really fair to say other champions also had week defences, at least they beat a somewhat credible champion in the first place.

[jamesmcdonnell]

I suppose I don't have a big problem with his choice here. He didn't exactly have a ton of options and a stay active fight never hurt anybody, or boxing as a whole.

What should truly scare fight fans is this. Joshua is going to make a PILE of money for this fight (at minimum risk); he will sell out the building, he'll see some money for TV, and he doesn't exactly have to throw a bunch of money at DB either. What's more, he can do this exact thing OVER AND OVER again while casual fans devour his highlight reel KO's and boxing dorks (like us) whine on internet forums about how no fighters take risks anymore. OVER...and OVER...and OVER again. Get comfortable guys, it may be a bit before he sees the value in a truly dangerous fight.

Why exactly does he NEED to even take a risk??? I have said it before and I will say it again....there is entirely too much money to be made in boxing if you can create a crowd pleasing brand that appeals to casual fans who enjoy a scrap that, more often than not, finishes with an explosive KO....Joshua is a walking cash register all on his own.

I hope to God I am wrong.

People will stop buying tickets for this - the casuals will lose interest eventually when it's a 2 round blowout every time.

[marvelous marv]

I find it curious that a Haymon fighter is going for a world title hours before Thurman-Porter meet in Brooklyn. Maybe Breazeale was selected because his fight could be a lead in to that showdown in the US market.

[ikorolev]

The fight sells out in 30 minutes:

http://www.BS.com/anthony-josh ... um=twitter

[actjac]

This is all on a path to create several super fights involving Wilder-Fury-Joshua-Parker with wild cards in Ortiz and Hughie. Lucas Browne factors in when one of the fab 4 fights him (probably Parker) and creates a buzz.. No one else matters in the heavyweight division.

[asdfjkl]

The fight sells out in 30 minutes:

http://www.BS.com/anthony-josh ... um=twitter

Any clue how long the same thing in the previous fight took?

[Tony1244]

I suppose I don't have a big problem with his choice here. He didn't exactly have a ton of options and a stay active fight never hurt anybody, or boxing as a whole.

What should truly scare fight fans is this. Joshua is going to make a PILE of money for this fight (at minimum risk); he will sell out the building, he'll see some money for TV, and he doesn't exactly have to throw a bunch of money at DB either. What's more, he can do this exact thing OVER AND OVER again while casual fans devour his highlight reel KO's and boxing dorks (like us) whine on internet forums about how no fighters take risks anymore. OVER...and OVER...and OVER again. Get comfortable guys, it may be a bit before he sees the value in a truly dangerous fight.

Why exactly does he NEED to even take a risk??? I have said it before and I will say it again....there is entirely too much money to be made in boxing if you can create a crowd pleasing brand that appeals to casual fans who enjoy a scrap that, more often than not, finishes with an explosive KO....Joshua is a walking cash register all on his own.

I hope to God I am wrong.

Joshua may do the above for a year or two, and I think that's fine. Eventually, 2-3 years, he will want to fight the top guy whomever that may be.

[crusader]

Joshua is in a great situation. He will be making loads of cash no matter who he fights.

[Lackeos]

This fight is only 2 months and 2 weeks after his previous fight, so this is really nothing to complain about. If he waited 10-11 months to fight no one better than Breazeale, then it would be worth a little concern, but Breazeale is still his second best opponent. You definitely have to be patient given that he's being really active and beating decent opposition relative to his progression. Even Wilder has made title defenses against fighters like Eric Molina. Even the Klitschkos have made title defenses against fighters like Francesco Pianeta and Shannon Briggs. At the rate Joshua is going, if he beats Martin, Breazeale, and 2 other dudes all in the same year, it'll be a pretty decent year; or Martin, Breazeale, and 1 more top 15 guy.

2 months after what fight??? You call the disgrace against Martin a fight???

So the standard you hold fighters to is that they must both fight every 2 months, and that it be a life-and-death war in each of those fights that are spaced out by 2 months? If it's not a war, then perhaps they should fight once every 1 month or 3 weeks. There are not many active fighters to measure up to your preposterous standards.

[jas80s]

I suppose I don't have a big problem with his choice here. He didn't exactly have a ton of options and a stay active fight never hurt anybody, or boxing as a whole.

What should truly scare fight fans is this. Joshua is going to make a PILE of money for this fight (at minimum risk); he will sell out the building, he'll see some money for TV, and he doesn't exactly have to throw a bunch of money at DB either. What's more, he can do this exact thing OVER AND OVER again while casual fans devour his highlight reel KO's and boxing dorks (like us) whine on internet forums about how no fighters take risks anymore. OVER...and OVER...and OVER again. Get comfortable guys, it may be a bit before he sees the value in a truly dangerous fight.

Why exactly does he NEED to even take a risk??? I have said it before and I will say it again....there is entirely too much money to be made in boxing if you can create a crowd pleasing brand that appeals to casual fans who enjoy a scrap that, more often than not, finishes with an explosive KO....Joshua is a walking cash register all on his own.

I hope to God I am wrong.

People will stop buying tickets for this - the casuals will lose interest eventually when it's a 2 round blowout every time.

I hope you are right, my friend.

But, it would seem that these types of shows seemingly always do well. Of course, eventually any fighter will choose an opportune moment to take a risk and make a giant pay day, but my experience is, the wait is often a long one. Hopefully, the eventual unification is a match up we all want to see.

[jas80s]

I suppose I don't have a big problem with his choice here. He didn't exactly have a ton of options and a stay active fight never hurt anybody, or boxing as a whole.

What should truly scare fight fans is this. Joshua is going to make a PILE of money for this fight (at minimum risk); he will sell out the building, he'll see some money for TV, and he doesn't exactly have to throw a bunch of money at DB either. What's more, he can do this exact thing OVER AND OVER again while casual fans devour his highlight reel KO's and boxing dorks (like us) whine on internet forums about how no fighters take risks anymore. OVER...and OVER...and OVER again. Get comfortable guys, it may be a bit before he sees the value in a truly dangerous fight.

Why exactly does he NEED to even take a risk??? I have said it before and I will say it again....there is entirely too much money to be made in boxing if you can create a crowd pleasing brand that appeals to casual fans who enjoy a scrap that, more often than not, finishes with an explosive KO....Joshua is a walking cash register all on his own.

I hope to God I am wrong.

Joshua may do the above for a year or two, and I think that's fine. Eventually, 2-3 years, he will want to fight the top guy whomever that may be.

I agree, Tony. I didn't mean to imply that he WOULD do it over and over forever. Only that, he has a pretty iron clad way of making a lot of money, so I would expect that he will be very careful about picking his spot. And, this is where I hate all the "he's a p-ssy" talk. This guy's career might seriously be valued at mid 9 figures before it's all said and done, and these people would honestly advise him to jump with any guy who can derail his career in a single punch for whatever chump change (relative to what it could be) that happens to be available at the moment?? The value of these careers can be astronomical, the finances of the sport have changed, or at least grown so dramatically, that matchmaking itself has to be viewed differently. At a certain point, fighters need to make compelling fights, but going out and pursuing some kind of murderers row is just bad business in the current financial climate. Not saying I love it, just what I would tell these guys if I were offering advice. Just my opinion of course.

[ikorolev]

The fight sells out in 30 minutes:

http://www.BS.com/anthony-josh ... um=twitter

Any clue how long the same thing in the previous fight took?

90 seconds

[asdfjkl]

The fight sells out in 30 minutes:

http://www.BS.com/anthony-josh ... um=twitter

Any clue how long the same thing in the previous fight took?

90 seconds

Exactly ;) I already knew it, that's why I asked because I had the feeling you thought 30 minits was fast.

[BitPlayer]

The fight sells out in 30 minutes:

http://www.BS.com/anthony-josh ... um=twitter

Their bots must been having issues, they bought the tickets for inflated resale much faster last time.

[Leonid]

Can I use Joshua's popularity to draw attention to discussion of Boxrec's all-time rating system? Oops, I just did.
http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... start=2650

[keithmoonhangover]

That it'll still make money and impress his fans?

That Joshua is an accident waiting to happen when he actually starts fighting genuine top 20 level heavyweights?

Martin was top 20, so is Breazeale.

[Ricky_]

That it'll still make money and impress his fans?

That Joshua is an accident waiting to happen when he actually starts fighting genuine top 20 level heavyweights?

Martin was top 20, so is Breazeale.

This should be fun. Let's see who can name 20 heavyweights better than Martin and Breazeale.