Anthony Joshua v Dominic Breazeale

I agree with this. They can't run with the hare and hunt with the hound, for top dollar.

Same with Amir Khan, years ago, but he had the good grace to get iced by the Brezeales of 135.

 

100% agreed. I don't have a problem with Joshua fighting this type of opponent at this stage of his career. I have a problem when masquerading it as a legit big fight for the HW championship of the world.

 

This fight is on Saturday, Groves vs Martin Murray fight is on the undercard. Eubank Jr fights too.

 

Joshua KO 2

 

As far as I'm concerned,..Joshua is the most exciting prospect to come along in the heavy division in years.
The division has been shit for over a decade now.
Joshua seems to have the size, speed and power.....and only his stamina, lack of experience and possibly chin are the only question marks.
I think he'd polish Fury and Wlad both pretty early

 

I don't have any problem with the match - titles became irrelevant years ago, promoters always hype fights as much as they can, and frankly I don't even mind sticking in a few quid for the Ppv because joshua is that exciting. If he still isn't fighting top guys in 12-18 months I'll start complaining

 

More than Anything, REED's a Fan of How FREQUENT Joshua Fights...








REED

 

Agreed. I wish more fighters would do the same.

 

He's a UK PPV fighter. That might not sound like much to US boxing fans used to pretty much paying $$$ for any top level boxing, but no other current UK 'world champion' (and last time I counted there were about a dozen beltholders) has fought on PPV yet except maybe that fraud smell Brook, whose last fight might have been on PPV if I remember correctly? :dunno: Frampton, Crolla, DeGale et al are nowhere near PPV level here.

If he's on PPV it's because he is making Hearn and his cronies some serious coin already. Makes sense to keep him busy. It's not like he's been in any particularly tiring fights - he's barely gone past two rounds in almost every fight he's had.

To reiterate my earlier post. IMO this is an absolutely disgraceful fight for a supposed HW champion of the world and the fact that I will either have to stream it or pay £20 for it is an even bigger disgrace. This guy has literally zero chance of winning. He'll surprise us all if he makes it to the end of the 3rd round. He's absolutely fucking shit.

MTF

 

Would you have paid 20 quid to watch Mike Tyson in 1985? I don't have a problem with it, the guy already might be the biggest UK draw ever

 

Would I fuck. And, besides, not even Tyson made it to PPV in the US (which has a far wider acceptance of PPV than here) until the Spinks fight.

I don't mind paying cash to watch the best fights. Big title fights are fights I'll reluctantly part with my hard earned to watch. I begrudge paying £20 to watch a guy who has basically fought nobody in less than 20 fights fight another nobody.

MTF

 

Absurd that this fight is on ppv. But then, boxing fans gets what they derserve

 

REED Understands Why You Have an Axe to Grind w/Joshua's Promoter & You're PRIVY to that Situation in a Way REED'll NEVER Be, Mr. Feebles...

It's Just a HUNCH on REED's Part, but he Doesn't Get the Impression Joshua will Follow the Kell Brook Blueprint, When it's All Said and Done...Joshua's AMBITIOUS; He's Of the Hatton, Froch, Hamed, Lennox Lot, Meaning he WANTS to Challenge Himself at the Highest Level AND Leave an Indelible Impression Upon AMERICAN Audiences, in Addition to his Countrymen...He's NOT Dariusz MichalSHITski, who NEVER Fought On American Soil, or even Joe Calzaghe, who Waited Until the Twilight of his Career to Cross the Pond...

Joshua is an ATTRACTION, he's the IT Guy in England Right Now...Being AT his Fights is a Status Symbol and You Definitely DON'T Want to Be the Guy @ Work Monday Morning, that MISSED the Latest Joshua Fight...It's SMART for his Promotion to Milk that To a Degree, as he Gets More Acclimated...Hut Mentioned Tyson and that's a SOUND Analogy, Because Tyson Really Didn't Fight ANYBODY Noteworthy til his 18th-20th Bout...As EASY as Mike Made it Look, Jim Jacobs was ASTUTE Enough to Know his Fighter Needed EXPERIENCE...So what they Did was Get him in the Ring Frequently, in SHOWCASE Bouts, Which Built Tyson's Following...

Granted, Tyson's Early Bouts WEREN'T On PPV, but that's the Climate we Live in as Contemporary Boxing Fans, for Better or Worse...For what it's Worth, SHOWTIME is Broadcasting the Joshua Fight to American Audiences and this'll Be the 2nd or 3rd Time they've Done So...They're Getting his Name and Face OUT There on This Side of the Pond, for his Inevitable Heavyweight Invasion of the United States...

There's NO Rush w/Joshua @ This Point, Bro...Another Year or So, of Increasingly Tougher Opposition Should Be Fine...If Handled Properly, Joshua Can have a SPECIAL Career and We'll Look Back on his 1st 18-20 Bouts as NECESSARY Evils, Much like we Do w/Tyson...No Brezeale ISN'T Quality, but he IS a 2012 U.S. Olympian, Which Adds a Degree of Marketability and Intrigue for MAINSTREAM Fans, If No One Else...

Loooooooong Story Short, REED Doesn't Believe Joshua Will ALLOW Hearn to "Protect" him for Much Looooooonger...He'll Be Demanding the Fury's/Klitschko's/Wilder's in Due Time...






REED:hammert:

 

I have no major issues with any of that and I agree that, in time, Joshua will step up in class.

PPV in the UK is a very different beast to the US. It is a sparsely used broadcast method. Lennox and Hamed were on early PPV a lot but other than that, even the biggest UK boxing names rarely charged extra to watch them. Calzaghe was on PPV about four times - Kessler, Hopkins, RJJ and I think that ridiculous mismatch with Manfredo might have been on PPV. The Lacy fight wasn't. Hatton likewise. Carl Froch didn't make it to PPV until after the Super Six; his first PPV fight was the Kessler rematch. Khan was thrown onto PPV early - his first PPV broadcast was the Prescott hilarity - but he had been built up in Olympics and on terrestrial TV and they took him straight back from PPV real quick. That's the nature of PPV here - it is rarely used and, when it is, it is usually only when the fighter concerned has established themselves as a 'proper' champion and is fighting top-class or name opponents. Being on PPV legitimises a fighter here. It gives them instant kudos even among the casual fan, who knows that to have to pay extra to watch means something.

Yet here with have AJ, who holds a title bauble having beaten one of the weakest paper champion and who is now making his first defence against someone who we all know has an absolutely miniscule chance of winning. This isn't a typical PPV fight at all. It is a cynical money grab. It would be almost palatable if the official line was that this fight is about a young fighter who has someone found himself holding a world bauble, keeping busy, learning his trade. But it isn't. The party line is that this is the first defence of the unbeaten HW champion of the world against another crack, unbeaten US opponent.

There is a clear and deliberate attempt to mislead all of the casual/new fans who are climbing aboard the AJ bandwagon. It is a cynical ploy to extract money from people. As a boxing fan, that grates for any number of reasons. I understand the need to make money - boxing is a business - but that doesn't mean I should happily roll over and take it up the arse because the Hearn clan have elected to start cashing in already on their biggest cash cow. It also creates a dangerous precedent - the earlier people are willing to start paying PPV prices to watch fights, the more and more it is likely to be used here.

MTF

 

Feebes, it wasn't principle that kept those guys off Ppv for so long it was the fact that ppv events would have flopped. OTOH every casual sports fan and his granny wants to watch joshua - he's arguably a bigger draw than any of the guys you listed ever were already.

 

There's about 15 of us watching the fight on Saturday. Maybe two of them were into mayweather-pac

 

[video=youtube;eVrf2H_8EMY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVrf2H_8EMY[/video]





REED:hammert:

 

[video=youtube;_V56wY9ji4s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V56wY9ji4s[/video]






REED:hammert:<strike></strike>

 

[video=youtube;AY0yN8ESayo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY0yN8ESayo[/video]






REED:hammert:

 

Charismatic dude. Nice teeth.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WYB1ApLCGS4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

As Hearn knew full well, I've bitten the bullet and paid good money to watch Joshua spark this bloke in a few minutes. So much for principles.

MTF ::

 

He's exciting! It's nice to be excited by strapping handsome men with nice teeth at the weekend

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/36607174

The BBC hyping up this non-affair this morning. Telling some lies into the bargain. This is my favourite: 'Breazeale, 30, is also unbeaten but failed to progress past the first round in the weight category that Joshua dominated at the London 2012 Olympics.'

'Dominated' :: Bloke should have been eliminated in the first round.

MTF ::

 

For those who missed Joshua's 'dominant' 2012 Olympic run, here's a report from his first round fight from one UK newspaper:

They let a platoon of British squaddies into the unoccupied posh seats to watch their country’s super-heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua start his Olympic journey and the ludicrous Games judging system did not disappoint them. Joshua was outboxed and outclassed by Cuba’s Erislandy Savon but was given the decision 17-16 even though he was the winner of only two of the 30 round scores accumulated by the 10 judges.

The format by which the scores with the widest margin were removed from the reckoning, further diluted by a calculation of averages, robbed the nephew of all-time Cuban Olympic great Felix Savon of an impressive and comfortable victory.

Even the fiercely partisan home crowd seemed to sense the injustice. The deafening roar which greeted the much-hyped Joshua into the ring had dwindled to a relieved and faintly embarrassed cheer by the time the result was announced.

This travesty kept Joshua on course to untold fortunes — albeit unsteadily — and Team GB’s 100 per cent record in this tournament thus far intact. But it did so at a cost to the British reputation for fair play.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ol...thony-Joshua-beats-Erislandy-Savon-17-16.html

'Dominated'.

MTF ::

 

He lost that fight and I remember you and I discussing just that 4 years ago.

How much has changed since.

 

A lot. The improvement in his stance, balance, punch technique etc over his first ten pro fights was immense; I thought he was a hype job originally, he won me over

 

Joshua is going to light this guy up like a Christmas tree.

 

This.

I get that it's a big part of his hype amongst the casuals, but I personally don't really consider him an Olympic champion. That's irrelevant to me. He lost to Savon clearly (although I still maintain he did legitimately beat Cammarelle). He looked horrible to me as an amateur, chin in the air, wide open to right hands, shite technique. The improvement as a professional is obvious to anybody with eyes.

 

He does look better, no doubt about that. But then a top-class amateur is bound to look better knocking out crap professionals than he did when he fighting amateur opponents of broadly equal ability. Levels, innit?

MTF