Deontay Wilder-Dominic Breazeale and the heavyweight puzzle

Written By Thomas Hauser
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One Saturday night, May 18, Deontay Wilder knocked out Dominic Breazeale in the first round at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Their fight marked the start of a four-week span in which all three claimants to the heavyweight throne — Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury — will see action, although not against the opponents that boxing fans want to see them fight (which is each other).

Wilder (now 41-0-1, 40 KOs) won the WBC heavyweight title in 2015. His most recent fight was contested last December when he rallied in the final round to earn a draw against Fury. He's a largely one-dimensional fighter, but that dimension is massive power. For every second of every round, he's looking to end matters with one punch. He's strong-willed and has a fervent belief in himself.

Breazeale, like Wilder, is 33 years old and stands 6-feet-7-inches tall. At the Friday weigh-in, he tipped the scales at 255 pounds, 32 pounds heavier than Wilder. Breazeale's most notable previous outing came on June 25, 2016, when he challenged Anthony Joshua for the IBF heavyweight crown and was stopped in the seventh round. Prior to taking up boxing, he'd played football at the University of Northern Colorado.

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"You’re talking to a quarterback who usually takes all the damage," Breazeale noted during a pre-fight media conference call. "The tables are turned. I’m the aggressor now."

In a vacuum, Wilder-Breazeale would have been an easy fight to make. Breazeale was the "mandatory" challenger for Wilder's WBC belt, and each man fights under the Premier Boxing Champions banner. But almost everything that happens in boxing these days is complicated by the ongoing war between three competing factions (1) PBC-Showtime-Fox; (2) Top Rank-Queensberry-ESPN; and (3) Matchroom-Golden Boy-DAZN.

Initially, it was assumed that Wilder and Fury would engage in a rematch. Their first fight had generated a modest live gate of $3.5 million with an estimated 315,000 buys on Showtime Pay-Per-View in the United States and 420,000 more with BT Sport in the United Kingdom. However, the rematch was expected to put up stronger numbers. Fury was offered a 50-50 split to fight Wilder at Barclays Center on May 18 with Showtime PPV and BT Sport reprising their roles

Then things got complicated.

On Feb. 18, 2019, ESPN, Top Rank and Queensberry (Fury's promoter) announced a multi-year agreement that calls for Fury to fight at least twice annually in the United States. All of his fights will be televised in the U.S. on an ESPN platform.

Wilder was then offered a multi-fight deal that would have seen him fight this spring on ESPN or ESPN+ against a relatively easy opponent for a purse of $12.5 million before moving to a Fury rematch for a minimum guarantee of $20 million. However, Wilder's management team (guided by PBC impresario Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel with input from Jay Deas) preferred that Wilder remain with Showtime for the time being. And Haymon didn't want to work with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum. Thus, the offer was turned down. But by then, DAZN had entered the fray.

Multiple sources say that Lou DiBella (the promoter of record for many of Wilder's earlier fights) urged Wilder to hear DAZN out before making a final decision. On March 12, Wilder, Haymon and Finkel met with DAZN executive chairman John Skipper in New York and were offered two alternative packages: (1) three fights for $100 million ($20 million to fight Breazeale, $40 million to fight Joshua in the fall and $40 million for an immediate rematch with Joshua) or (2) the same package with a $20 million fight thrown in between the two Joshua fights. The first fight with Joshua would have been in the United States and the second in the U.K.

Oddly, when the media arrived at Barclays Center on March 19 for the kickoff press conference for Wilder-Breazeale, it still hadn't been announced whether the fight would be on DAZN, ESPN or Showtime. It wasn't until several Showtime personnel were spotted that it could be said with certainty that Wilder would be making his 12th appearance on a Showtime platform.

Details of the contract have been shrouded in secrecy. Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said at the press conference that Wilder had made "a decision that guarantees financial success for a long time." He later told Keith Idec of that Wilder's purse for fighting Breazeale would be less than $20 million but that the path Wilder had chosen left him “generally in the same neighborhood with the financial opportunities.”

Showtime is said to have paid a license fee of $5 million to $6 million for Wilder-Breazeale, but that number is speculative. Estimates as to Wilder's purse range from $12.5 million to $18 million. Other components of the deal are also unclear, although multiple sources say that Wilder is not locked into Showtime for future fights.

MORE: What we learned from Wilder's KO of Breazeale

Sources also say that Wilder's management and promotional team wanted the fight on Showtime — not Showtime PPV — because if a Wilder-Breazeale pay-per-view promotion had gone poorly in terms of buys, it would have hurt Wilder's bargaining position down the line against Fury and Joshua.

What is known with certainty is that the competition from DAZN increased Wilder's paycheck for the Breazeale fight. And it reportedly left DiBella (whose counseling Wilder led to the increase) persona non grata with Showtime, Haymon and Finkel for throwing a temporary speed bump in front of their plans. We also know that someone (most likely PBC) will take a significant short-term loss to make good on Wilder's guarantee for the Breazeale fight. In return, that party expects to share in bigger paydays down the road.

Wilder explained his decision in terms of self-empowerment.

"I move as I please," he said. "Those guys (Joshua and Fury), they have to do as they're told. I make commands and demands. They take them. I move where I want. Soon, I will be the highest paid athlete in the world. You'll see. I'm betting on myself. I look at the bigger picture. You sell me a number, and I know there's going to be a bigger number than that. They saw a guy they thought they could throw some money at and that would be it. But they found out the hard way."

Wilder later elaborated on this theme, telling writer Greg Leon, "ESPN and DAZN, they wanted a long term on me. I like to dictate my own career and I like to see where it's going for myself. When you're giving these guys so many years, you're giving them too much control. I don't like people to have too much control over me and my career because I know what it is and I know where it's going. They put out a big number. And being human, you see that and you automatically think 'Oh My God!' But you need to know what's going on behind the details of that number. I'm not no fool. I know the cards that I hold in this division. I bet on myself because I know that I hold all the keys and I possess the power. I'm a living walking icon. I am the best heavyweight in the world. I am the most dangerous and exciting heavyweight in the game, period. Everyone is going to want somebody like me. So why would I give that all away when I can bet in on myself."

But there's a difference between opportunities and guarantees. Hasim Rahman thought that he held all the cards when he "bet on himself" after knocking out Lennox Lewis in 2001 to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. HBO offered Rahman a multi-fight deal that began with a rematch against Lewis and would have guaranteed him a lifetime of wealth. But Don King played to Rahman's ego, assuring him that he was The Man. Rahman passed on HBO's offer and then, to his chagrin, found out that being The Man can end with one punch.

The build-up to Wilder-Breazeale was ugly. There were the usual pre-fight rituals and promotional activities. But the dialogue was dominated by intense animosity between Wilder and Breazeale that was very personal and very real.

The bad blood dated to an incident that occurred on Feb. 26, 2017, after Wilder and Breazeale fought in separate bouts on the same card in Birmingham, Ala. There had been an argument at ringside between Breazeale and Wilder's younger brother, Marsellos. Later that night, the hostilities resumed in more heated fashion in the lobby of The Westin Birmingham Hotel. Marsellos is believed to have been the primary instigator, but Deontay was a participant. The police were called. No arrests were made.

The following day, Breazeale posted a statement on Instagram that read, “I want to address the fact that Deontay Wilder and a mob of about 20 people unprovokedly attacked my team and my family in the lobby last night. My coach and I were blindsided by sucker punches and my team was assaulted as well all in front my wife and kids. This cowardly attack has no place in boxing and believe me will not go unpunished."

The animosity between the fighters was on display at the March 19 kickoff press conference.

"Payback is a motherf—," Wilder proclaimed. "Pain is the name of the game. We all know who does that best, and it's legal. He's f—ing with the wrong person. I got gold on the tip of my tongue. When I speak, my words come true. This is gonna be a massacre. I expect him to make some funeral arrangements."

Breazeale isn't given to trash-talking, but on this occasion he responded, "I'm sick of seeing this bum walk around with his belt. I'm going to put him on his ass."

Asked for more details about the hotel lobby incident, Breazeale said, "I didn't have an urban dictionary with me, so I couldn't understand what he was saying."

Then Wilder took things to another level. Wilder has an aura of menace about him. And he likes to hear himself talk. In mid-April, as the war of words escalated, he was asked by a reporter for the Daily Mail if he'd feel remorse if Breazeale died from fight-inflicted injuries.

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"Not one bit of remorse," Wilder answered. "This is boxing. This is what we do. This is what we sign up for. Anything can happen. Your head is not meant to be hit in the first place. You talk about me killing the guy. If it happens, it happens. When you are dealing with a situation like this and it's personal, I don't mean well for him nor do he mean well for me. I'm a realist and I speak how it is. I don't like him. At all."

On a May 9 media conference call, Wilder elaborated on this theme, saying, "I don’t mean no good for him. All bad intentions. If you’re a first-time viewer of boxing, it depends on how you feel about seeing a body on the ground or seeing blood come from somebody. 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. It’s punishment time. It’s judgment time. And I am the judge."

During the same conference call, Wilder challenged Breazeale's version of events in the hotel lobby and maintained, "I put him on my card. He didn’t have to be on my card. But you come to my hometown and cause this mess? You want to start this drama and act like you were the victim and your wife was the victim? He’s an opportunist. … A man comes to my city and starts chaos like that and then telling a bogus story. He's like one of these guys that will come into your establishment and waste water on the floor and slip on it just to sue you."

Five days later, during a media workout at Gleason's Gym, Wilder went further, saying, “His life is on the line for this fight, and I do mean his life. I’m still trying to get me a body on my record. You can ask any doctor around the world, and he’ll tell you a head is not meant to be hit. This is the only sport where you can kill a man and get paid for it at the same time. It’s legal. So why not use my right to do so?”

Asked later by BBC Sport if he wanted to walk back that comment, Wilder doubled down, stating, "I don't regret nothing that I say. I've always been real. I don't worry about being politically correct."

Breazeale responded in more dignified fashion, saying, "You never want to hear an individual — and I don't care what sport it is but especially in the sport of boxing — who has the ability to put someone else in a bad state of mind or hurt them physically (talk like that). Both he and I have knocked out individuals with shots where I'm like, 'Oh God, I hope he's going to be OK from this.' There is no way you can get behind a heavyweight champ who wants to put harm on another individual or take another man's life or put him in a coma. That's not the barbaric state of mind that any champion should be in."

Carlos Acevedo put the matter in perspective, writing, "When Wilder, thirty-three, was charged with domestic battery a few years ago, well, that was something to hush up. But now we have the new homicidal Wilder, a man whose recent talk is both debased and debasing and, more to the point, as loud as various mixed media platforms of the day allow him to be. His lectures to schoolchildren, his talk of his Christian faith, his fairy tale rise from working at IHOP and Red Lobster to becoming a multimillionaire, his sob story about his daughter (who suffers from spina bifida) — all of that now overshadowed by a noisy loathsomeness likely to continue in the future."

At the final pre-fight press conference on May 16, Breazeale's initial comments were innocuous. Then, when it was Wilder's turn to speak, a Wilder aide dropped an urban dictionary on the dais in front of Breazeale so, in Wilder's words, "he can understand the urbanology of what I'm about to say to him."

Wilder then called Breazeale an "uppity Negro" and said "he don't have enough bass in his voice." He also added, "Guys understand, when they get in the ring with Deontay Wilder, it's more than just a boxing match. This is not a game. We don't play games. We know that, when I speak, I speak truth. … I'm not in this business to make no friends. There's so many things I've said, and I mean every word I've said. This has been a long time coming for him. … He asked for this, and he shall receive. … I'm gonna fade him out, baby. I can't wait. … Come Saturday night, I can do whatever I want to do. … If anybody thinks this is a game, you better close your eyes when the TV comes on. Or if you’re there, you better bring your blindfold because this is gonna be a tragedy. It’s gonna be a tragedy. The least I can do I can pay for the funeral.”

Then Wilder put an even more ominous spin on things, saying, "Dominic Breazeale almost lost his life that night (in the Alabama hotel). He don't know how close he came. I had guys apologizing to me because they had stuff known that they was gonna take him out. I begged them off."

And speaking to Breazeale, Wilder warned, "You better gather around your loved ones tonight, because Saturday night they might not be able to talk to you. Trust me. You know I don't play no games. It's gonna be good. … When you close your eyes in the hospital room, you're gonna see my face over and over and over again."

"A win for myself is a win for the world," Breazeale said afterward. "He's a disgrace to boxing and worse."

Wilder was a 7-to-1 betting favorite. In the face of those odds, Breazeale was upbeat. The knockout loss to Joshua, he maintained, was a plus. "An eye opener," he called it.

"I learned that I had a lot to learn," Breazeale reasoned. "The loss and the experience of losing opened my eyes. There was a bigger, stronger, more athletic man across the ring that night. I was standing there and taking some damage that I didn’t need to take because of the big guy that I am. My way of bouncing back from that was to study the film day in and day out. I watched it round after round, minute after minute. I watched it in silence. I watched it with people. I watched it without people. And the quarterback background in me was studying. I wanted to see everything that I did wrong. I learned a lot more from that one loss than I learned from all my wins in my whole boxing career."

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As for Wilder, Breazeale declared, "I don’t see any fundamental skills. He hasn’t grown. He hasn’t changed. He looks the same as he did in the amateurs. Yes, he’s got a big right hand, but don’t we all in the heavyweight division? In boxing, it’s the shots you don’t see coming. But that shot he throws, man, it’s from way back. I don’t plan on getting hit a lot on May 18. And if I do, I’ve been there. I’ve done that. If the right hand comes, so be it. I’ll deal with it."

Still, most boxing insiders agreed with the odds. An opponent can't stand in front of Wilder at long range and let him dictate the terms of engagement. If that happens, Wilder will keep throwing his right hand until he lands it. It's essential to keep him turning so he can't set his feet to punch. Among other things, that requires nimble footwork.

Breazeale was the perfect opponent for Wilder. Words like ponderous, wooden, and slow come to mind when describing Breazeale's ring style. He takes a good punch but gets hit a lot. Wilder is a poor choice as an opponent for a fighter who's easy to hit. It was doubtful that Breazeale could survive Wilder's power.

"Breazeale don't belong in the ring with me," Wilder said. "I don't see this fight going no more than five rounds, and I'm probably going to cut him down in three. Nobody he could work with could get him prepared for Deontay Wilder. It's like I told Tyson Fury. You have to be perfect for all 12 rounds. I only have to be perfect for two seconds."

When fight night came, one could be forgiven for feeling that an ugly fog hung over the ring at Barclay's Center. The announced attendance was 13,181. But the promotion had struggled to sell tickets, and multiple sources have said thousands of comps were given away in the days before the fight.

The crowd, which had been silent for much of the evening, came to life as Wilder made his way to the ring. When referee Harvey Dock gave the fighters their final instructions, Wilder looked eager to get the fight started. Breazeale seemed anxious to get it over.

They fought on even terms until the opening bell. Eighty seconds after the bout began, Wilder staggered Breazeale with a straight right hand. Breazeale fought back. Wilder got separation, jabbed, and fired an explosive, crushing, highlight-reel right hand that landed flush on the side of Breazeale's head just beneath his left ear. Breazeale plummeted to the canvas, struggled to rise, and just missed beating the count. But even if he'd made it to his feet in time, he was in no condition to continue. The time of the knockout was 2 minutes 17 seconds of the first round.

At the post-fight press conference, Wilder addressed the negativity that had preceded the fight. First, he referenced speaking with Breazeale in the ring immediately after the bout.

"After doing what I did," Wilder recounted, "I just wanted to come over and say, 'Man, it's over with. We got in the ring. We fought it out. It shouldn't be no more animosity against each other. What happened happened in the past. We're gonna keep it in the past." But Wilder went on to say, "All the negative energy I had towards him, everything that was built up inside of me, I had the opportunity to release. That's why boxing is very important for me because it gives me the opportunity to release negative energy even if it has to be on another human being. And I love it."

Then, talking about the vulnerability of fighters, Wilder noted, "No man wants to get humiliated on national TV and their body drops like that. You never know what it's gonna do after you get hit from a devastating punch. You can fall on your face. You can ball up. Your legs can bend. You can fall out the ring. Many different things. And no one wants the highlight on them because the way the internet is set up right now, it's undefeated."

Breazeale chose to not attend the post-fight press conference. That was understandable. At its core, there's something visceral and primal about a prize-fight. Combine that with smoldering hatred and being knocked out in the first round, and it hurts. The fight was a bitter pill for Breazeale to swallow. In many ways, the psychological pain was worse than the physical. Now he has to say to himself, "Hey, it happened. I came out of it healthy. I made good money that I can put toward providing for my family. What happened wasn't as bad as a life-altering car crash or a doctor telling me that someone I love has a malignant tumor."

Meanwhile, one has to ask, "What does Wilder-Breazeale mean for boxing?" The answer is that, at present, "The pieces of the heavyweight jigsaw puzzle that boxing is trying to put together don't fit."

Despite an enormous amount of money pouring into the sport from DAZN, ESPN, and Fox, the sweet science isn't making new converts in the United States. In fact, today's diluted product is turning off once-loyal fans.

MORE: Fury expects Wilder rematch in 2020

A handful of fighters are being paid purses far beyond the revenue that they're generating. And a few promoters are reaping substantial rewards. The hope among the powers that be is that this will lead to big pay-per-view scores, increased subscription buys and more advertising dollars in the future. But to be successful, marketers have to energize their base.

Boxing has the challenge of energizing its base while competing year round with sports that give fans what they want: the best against the best. 

The SEC has a contract for its football games with CBS. Alabama and Georgia are in the SEC. The Big Ten has contracts for its football games with ESPN and Fox. Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State are in the Big Ten. And Notre Dame has a contract with NBC. These teams don't hide behind their TV contracts. When championships are on the line, they play each other.

On April 14, Tiger Woods thrilled the sports world by winning the Masters for his 15 "major" triumph. That weekend, boxing fans had to settle for a mismatch between Vasiliy Lomachenko and Anthony Crolla.

Now the NBA playoffs are underway. Great players and great teams are being tested nightly over a two-month period as they strive to reach the pinnacle of their sport. The heavyweight championship of the world is the pinnacle of boxing. Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder should be fighting each other; not Andy Ruiz, Tom Schwarz and Dominic Breazeale.

For a long time, Wilder was protected by his management team in their choice of opponents. He doesn't have to be protected anymore. It's too early to anoint him a great heavyweight. But he appears to be the equal of Joshua and Fury. And Wilder in the ring against any heavyweight ever would be compelling to watch. He's a formidable presence with a destructive aura about him. His right hand is an explosive weapon with a good delivery system. When he works behind his jab, he's very good. He's quick and he's tough. Like the Klitschkos, he has learned to use his height and reach to stay out of harm's way.

So for the time being, let's give Wilder the final word with some thoughts that he expressed at the May 18 post-fight press conference:

- "I'm finally getting my respect. It took a long time, but I'm very patient. I've tried to prove myself for a very long time."

- "One second and you can be gone. I'm a dangerous guy. I can be lethal. I put fear in any man."

- "People think, 'Oh, he just got a right hand so you stay away from that. But when I settle myself down and use my intelligence in the ring, magic happens."
