Anthony Joshua vs Dominic Breazeale: Joshua back for much of the same, but Breazeale is step in the right direction

Martin came from the same construction camp but make no mistake, Breazeale is a better fighter

Anthony Joshua makes his first defence of the IBF world heavyweight title against Dominic Breazeale (Getty)

Back in April Anthony Joshua ended the temporary reign of a tin champion called Charles Martin with a pair of concussive right hands that exposed the pitiful lunacy of sanctioning bodies in the boxing business.

Joshua is a fine fighter, a decent man and he won the IBF heavyweight title that night; the belt was stolen from Tyson Fury last December and slipped through a fantasy web of justification, obfuscation and stupidity until coming to rest, draped like a photo-booth prop on the shoulder of Martin.

A second or two after Martin was sent crashing he vanished forever, ejected during the forced celebrations after the fight, and this Saturday a man cut from the same dubious cloth as the hapless Martin will step through the ropes at the O2 and hope to survive a second or two longer. Joshua is not a fool, he knows the calibre of the men that are making him famous.

Since January 2015 eight world heavyweight title fights have taken place and five men, including Martin, have held a version of the title. Martin’s reign, incidentally, was the second shortest in the golden history of the heavyweight championship and that is an unwanted crown that Joshua would inherit if he loses to Dominic Breazeale this Saturday. It is not the most disturbing title a loss would bestow on Joshua’s angel wings if Breazeale connects with something wild to clip the ascent.

If Saturday’s fight was simply number 17 of Joshua’s beautifully stage-managed career it would be brilliant, a stunning risk for a young heavyweight with as many questions swirling above his head as his fists have answered inside the ring. However, the IBF championship belt complicates issues, causes grown men to blabber incoherently and divides the boxing fans. I doubt Joshua would have met either Martin or Breazeale, both punchers, if the belt had not fortuitously become available and that, I guess, is an upside of the bureaucratic shambles.

Breazeale is unbeaten, heavier and taller than Joshua, a genuine athlete with a history in American football. He is also, having seen him fight, too brave for his own good and that is what makes Saturday’s meeting such an entertaining event. Breazeale can be dropped, can be hurt but he gets up and fights like his life depends on it; Joshua has not yet had to prove his desire under the same calamitous circumstances. Only in boxing do we believe what we have never seen and, trust me, nobody knows what their heart and brain will do when 18-stone of fist connects with a man’s temple and initiates the desperate boxer boogie, an unbearable dance for the concussed fighter.

The bookies will present the expected massacre as a closed-shop for dreamers, Joshua will sail through the plastic niceties this week, flex his abdominal apparatus and float to the ring in a flowing white robe that could have been constructed for an unseen hero in Lord of the Rings.


 Breazeale was on course for a career in American football before turning to boxing 
 (Getty)

Breazeale is talking a good fight and I believe in his sincerity because he is a confident fighter, a man that passed from boy to beast as a praised and lauded quarterback. He was going to the NFL, to a golden future before his arm started to let him down and in a stumbling exit from his own fairy tale he found himself in a fight factory in California that was created to identify and build heavyweight world champions. Martin came from the same construction camp; Breazeale, make no mistake, is a better fighter.

In two weeks the real heavyweights arrive in Britain when Wladimir Klitschko fights Fury for revenge, and the belts that were not stolen, in Manchester. It is arguably the most important heavyweight world title fight to take place in Britain since our beloved Frank Bruno beat Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium in 1995. The celebrations that night were genuine, thrilling and emotional.


 Joshua beat Martin comfortably to win the IBF heavyweight title 
 (Getty)

On Saturday Big Joshua will be far more cautious than in his previous fights before opening gaps, landing heavily and finally stepping back as the front row shouts “timber” to the whoosh of Breazeale tumbling over. There is nothing wrong with this fight because Breazeale will go down swinging and Joshua knows just about enough right now not to get sucker punched. On July 9, Fury and Klitschko will play a very different game.

Peerless Lomachenko.

Vasyl Lomachenko won two Olympic gold medals, has lost just twice in over 400 fights and two Saturdays ago became a two-weight world champion in just his 7th professional fight. He is a peerless operator in a business of hyped bruisers and a fighter to be cherished.