Joshua: Any Fight Can Be My Last; Expecting The Best Breazeale

By Keith Idec

Anthony Joshua and his handlers haven’t treated the first defense of his IBF heavyweight title the way oddsmakers have portrayed it.

The British knockout artist is a 50-1 favorite over undefeated Dominic Breazeale, but Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) has prepared for a legitimate challenge Saturday night at O2 Arena in London. Joshua has spoken to Amir Mansour, whose jaw was broken by Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) during their January 23 fight at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Breazeale bounced back from a third-round knockdown to win that bout by technical knockout once Mansour (22-2-1, 16 KOs) didn’t come out of his corner for the sixth round.

Based on what he has seen and what Mansour told him, the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Joshua says he has a healthy respect for the 6-7, 260-pound Breazeale, a 2012 Olympian from Alhambra, California.

“Every fight can be my last fight,” Joshua said during a conference call Monday. “As much as I like to tell you I’m confident, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that, I do really understand I have to approach it [as if] it could be my last fight. And with Breazeale, I know he was an athlete. He was a [college] quarterback before he was a boxer, which is good. So he’s got some pedigree as being an athlete, which leads to I know he can hang around. He doesn’t go down easy. He’s a big guy. He can eat shots.

“And I think any person I fight, the Dominic Breazeale I’m used to watching on YouTube and I’m reading about, I’m gonna be facing the enhanced Dominic Breazeale, the Dominic Breazeale that’s 50 percent better because I think he knows he wants to come and prove himself on the global stage now. This is his chance come Saturday, so I need to prepare for the best Dominic Breazeale.” 

Showtime will televise the Joshua-Breazeale bout live as part of a telecast that’ll start Saturday at 5:15 p.m. ET and 2:15 p.m. PT. It’ll be the first of the multi-fight agreement Joshua signed with Showtime following the rising star’s second-round knockout of Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) on April 9 at O2 Arena.

“As successful as the journey has been so far, we’re very aware of the threat of Dominic Breazeale,” said Eddie Hearn, group managing director for Matchroom Sport, Joshua’s promoter. “Over here, the feeling is it’s gonna be quite a routine defense. But Anthony hasn’t trained like that. He’s not expecting that.

“He knows the background and the roots of Dominic Breazeale. He knows he’s skilled. He knows how dangerous he can be. And he knows how hungry he is as well. I think you’re gonna get a different kind of fight than the Charles Martin fight. I think you’re gonna get a guy that’s not afraid to let his hands go. He’s not gonna wait. And the sold-out O2 Arena, which sold out in under 20 minutes, on Saturday night is gonna be an electric place to be.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.