By Keith Idec
When some of what Dominic Breazeale stated earlier in a conference call Thursday was relayed to Deontay Wilder, the WBC heavyweight champion sensed fear from his mandatory challenger.
“This guy is very nervous,” Wilder said. “I know everything that he wants to do. I know it all. He should be nervous because I don’t mean no good for him – all bad intentions.”
The 6-feet-7 Wilder is consistently listed as at least an 8-1 favorite over Breazeale. Wilder’s upcoming opponent also stands 6-feet-7 and could out-weigh the Alabama-based knockout artist by 50 pounds when the meet May 18 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wilder still is more than confident he’ll knock out Breazeale in a scheduled 12-round fight Showtime will televise.
“If you’re a first-time viewer of boxing,” Wilder said, “it depends on how you feel about seeing a body on the ground or seeing blood come from somebody. You know, you’re gonna be in for a treat. I hope you stick around for the next one to come, because I’m the most exciting heavyweight in the division – period. Period.
“There’s no one that’s more exciting than I, that bring the pain, that bring the drama as I. And I can speak it. A lot of these guys wanna speak kind and soft, and wanna be politically correct and wanna talk proper. Nah – I tell you how you I feel in the moment of time. I feel the energy of the room. I feel the energy of myself and I release that. And I tell you how it is. And when it’s time for me to display that, I do that as well. And I do it in a great fashion.”
Wilder pointed to Breazeale’s only loss – a seventh-round TKO defeat to fellow heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua – as evidence that Breazeale doesn’t deserve this title shot.
Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs), of Eastvale, California, is 3-0 since Joshua stopped him in their June 2017 bout at O2 Arena in London. He beat each of those three opponents – Izu Ugonoh, Eric Molina and Carlos Negron – by knockout or technical knockout.
Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) will fight for the first time since his 12-round draw with Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) on December 2 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“We’re gonna find out and it’s not gonna be long now,” Wilder said. “We’re gonna find out, so he’s gonna realize he’s never been in the ring with a guy like myself. He feel like he fought for a world title before. He seen that he didn’t belong there in the first place. Now he’s in there with a real killer. A real one that speak his peace, and I mean what I say. Nobody’s gonna stop me. I mean what I say and I say what I mean, and come the 18th, we gonna find out.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
