After what Dominic Breazeale witnessed February 22, the heavyweight contender cannot see the third Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight unfolding more favorably for Wilder.
In fact, Breazeale wouldn’t be surprised if Fury defeats Wilder even easier in their third fight. England’s Fury, who beat Wilder by seventh-round technical knockout in their rematch, is tentatively set to face Wilder again October 3 at an undetermined venue.
Breazeale, an analyst for FOX who was knocked out by Wilder in the first round 11 months ago, discussed the Fury-Wilder fights as part of the most recent episode of “The PBC Podcast.” The former college football quarterback contends he wasn’t surprised England’s Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) beat Alabama’s Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) so convincingly in their rematch.
“No, not at all,” Breazeale told co-hosts Kenneth Bouhairie and Michael Rosenthal. “I was actually there in person for the Wilder-Fury I, and I thought Fury did enough to win that fight, as far as the boxing side of things. It was unfortunate that he got dropped the way he did. But, I mean, fight number two, he showed sheer boxing skill and overall just strength and ability. I think that come fight number three, it’s gonna be the same outcome. And if not, Fury might even actually stop Wilder a little sooner in the fight.”
Fury floored Wilder with a right hand to his head in the third round two months ago at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The unbeaten WBC champion dropped Wilder again with a left to the body in the fifth round.
Referee Kenny Bayless stopped the one-sided action in the seventh round, when Wilder’s assistant trainer, Mark Breland, threw in the towel. Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs) didn’t notice anything in their first two bouts, the first of which resulted in a controversial split draw, that leads him to believe Wilder will avenge his first defeat in their third meeting.
“No, not really, man,” Breazeale said. “We all know he has that big right hand, everything that he bases off. He’s done a great job thus far in his career just getting as far as he has with that one big punch. But I think Fury’s crafty enough and skilled enough to avoid the right hand, as he did in the last fight and put on his own punishment.”
Breazeale believed he could implement a similar strategy when he challenged Wilder last May 18 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Wilder instead blasted Breazeale, his mandatory challenger, with a crushing right hand that knocked him flat on his back barely two minutes into their scheduled 12-round fight.
The 6-feet-7, 255-pound Breazeale got up, but not before referee Harvey Dock’s count reached 10. Dock stopped their fight 2:17 into it.
“You know, Fury went into that fight with the same kind of game plan that I did, being the bigger, stronger man,” Breazeale said. “And it just happened to turn out that Fury executed the plan a lot better than I did.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
