Breazeale's surprisingly-brilliant KO...

Breazeale has had some big KO's before. When he stopped Ugonoh - Izu was basically standing in front of him gassed with his hands down. Molina was gassed when Breazeale dropped him. Mansour bit through his own tongue and, of course, Breazeale managed to stop a dozen or so overmatched opponents early in his career.

I'm a fairly-harsh critic of Breazeale (see a certain thread that I posted leading up to this fight) - but his stop of Negron last night actually gives me some hope that a Wilder-Breazeale matchup won't be laughable.

Breazeale set that right hand up brilliantly. He threw a snapping, almost bolo-like jab that stung Negron, then followed it up with a really-nice feint with the left-hand that pulled Negron's own left hand down - and by that time that big right-hand was well on its way. Not sure an Ortiz or Fury could have done it any better. Great stuff.

While I'm certainly picking Wilder to stop Breazeale in any future fight - I can't say I've seen the Bronze Bomber employ that level of skill (he relies on speed and a bit of instinct) in his own stops. And given Wilder's inclination to be caught out by the same basic tactics again and again - who's to say that Domenic can't repeat this feat?

 

I do think that Breazeale is carrying about 10 lbs of extra weight - I like him around 246-250 lbs. 230 lbs is way too light at 6 7 1/2" IMO though. Not all fighters are going to look like Anthony Joshua no matter what they do. Your body type is what it is.

Breazeale's gas tank may not be as bad as some think it is - he was throwing more than 60 punches a round. Honestly, he seems to be a bit less inclined to spray his shots and line them up better when he's a bit tired. He seems to recover very fast between rounds and that 5th round against Ugonoh is a great example of that.

Breazeale's lack of speed is what it is...it can't really improve a whole lot over what it is right now. OK, I'll admit that they probably aren't maximizing what he has in training - but Breazeale will never have fast hands.

 

Mostly, I'd agree. No, it's not a chess match and, yeah, "Brilliant" oversells it - but being able to anticipate and line stuff up over a 1-2 second time is important.

Examples: Wlad was really good lining up those big straight rights by using his jab to get his opponent's hands out of place. I don't think GGG has great hand speed - but he's got extraordinary timing.

And you compare that with a guy like Gerald Washington who has got some decent physical gifts, but when he isn't prancing around poking with his jab - is just harmlessly bouncing shots off his opponent's hips and elbows. Obviously, there's something missing.