WILDER VS BREAZEALE Fight
There are moments in sports so surreal and exciting that it can be easy to get seduced into thinking you just witnessed a handoff from one era to another.One might be quick to forgive the boxing fans and critics among us who witnessed Tyson Fury improbably rise from the canvas in Round 12 of his pay-per-view title bout against Deontay Wilder last December and were prisoners of the moment as to what it might mean.
Certainly, the general public -- hard-core fans and casual drifters alike -- were treated to a modern heavyweight classic when Fury and Wilder, unbeaten champions with larger-than-life size and personality, fought to a disputed draw. What may not end up being true, however, was that the fight triggered a renaissance for the division in which the best would boldly seek to face each other while serving as a rising tide for the health of the sport.
For those who entered 2019 assuming Wilder, Fury and fellow unbeaten Anthony Joshua were on a collision course for one another, the subsequent hangover has been a painful one.
Dominic Breazeale is going to get knocked out in dramatic fashion on Saturday. I can't wait," Wilder said. "He's like a fly in my ear. I'm going to get him out of there in a fashion no one has ever seen. [He] asked for this. I didn't seek him out. He came for me. This isn't a gentleman's sport. We have bad blood and it'll be in the ring Saturday night.
"Now he's in there with a real killer. A real one who speaks that speaks his peace and I mean what I say. Nobody's going to stop me."
While Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs) admits he has used the hatred for his opponent as fuel to push even harder during training camp, this is a matchup he has pursued for multiple years mostly because of his confidence that he's the more skilled fighter. He has watched multiple Wilder opponents expose the champion's raw boxing style in the early rounds before being stopped late.
