Anthony Joshua vs Dominic Breazeale


Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale was a professional boxing match contested on 25 June 2016, for the IBF heavyweight championship. The bout took place at The O2 Arena in London.
Joshua defeated Breazeale, retaining his heavyweight title via seventh-round technical knockout.

Background

Following Joshua's win over Charles Martin on 9 April, a second-round technical knockout to capture the IBF heavyweight title, a shortlist of potential opponents for Joshua's first defence included former WBC champion Bermane Stiverne, former world title challenger Eric Molina and the IBF's number 13 ranked undefeated contender Dominic Breazeale.
On 21 April, Joshua revealed his next fight would take place on 25 June at The O2 Arena, with Breazeale being announced as the opponent a few days later, with Joshua quoted as saying "I am looking to get past Breazeale in style and continue moving towards the unification fight everybody is waiting for". Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn had previously said that Joshua would fight on 9 July at Wembley, that plan changed when the rematch between unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and former long reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko would take place Manchester on that day.

The fights

Undercard

The preliminary bouts saw wins for prospects Ted Cheeseman and Anthony Ogogo as well as for super flyweight contender Kal Yafai. The live PPV card began with Andrea Scarpa stopping John Wayne Hibbert, followed by stoppage wins for Dillian Whyte and Conor Benn.

Eubank Jr. vs. Doran

Next there was a British middleweight title bout between champion Chris Eubank Jr and challenger Tom Doran.

The fight

Doran was down once in the third round and three times in the fourth as the referee ended the fight.

Aftermath

Eubank Jr. once again called out undefeated unified WBA and IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in a post-fight interview with Sky Sports. Throughout the year, Eubank Jr. had called out Golvokin on multiple occasions. In July 2016, Golovkin was confirmed to have signed his end of a contract to face Eubank on 10 September. However on 8 July Eubank Jr. was removed from the fight by promoter Eddie Hearn who offered the deal to IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, who took the deal to fight Golovkin. Eubank Jr. responded to being replaced by stating he "had never been presented with the fight contract." Boxers including Tommy Langford, Martin Murray, Curtis Stevens began calling out Eubank.

Groves vs. Murray

The chief support saw three time world title challenger George Groves meet domestic rival and four-time world title challenger Martin Murray in a WBA super middleweight title eliminator.
Speaking in the build up Groves described Martin as "...the perfect fight for me at this stage. He's a seasoned campaigner, who's boxed at the highest level for quite some time. He is a world level opponent and I'll have to be fully focused and prepared to beat him. A win against Murray on the biggest stage will open a lot of doors and bring me a step closer to achieving my goal of becoming world champion. I'm fully expecting it to be a war; I can't wait."
Murray made weight on the second attempt.

The fight

Groves hurt Murray with a right uppercut at the end of 7th, a left-right combination at the end of the 9th and a pair of big right hands in the 12th. Murray had Groves looking hurt in the 10th after hitting him with a left hook to the head. Both fighters looked tired and ragged in the 12th round. Their conditioning looked less than to be desired at that point in the fight.
At the end of 12 rounds Groves defeated Murray via a 12-round unanimous decision. The three judges scored the fight at 118–110, giving Murray only two rounds.

Aftermath

Groves told Sky Sports in the aftermath, "I think I performed great, but I got caught with punches, Martin Murray is a class act and should be a world champion. It was make or break, but I had him out on his feet. That was my first step up since losing to Badou Jack. I did well but hats off to Murray. What a performer."

Main Event

With not much action in the opener, a clean left hook from Joshua was the highlight of the round. In the second, Joshua began putting combination punches together and throwing at will. In the final minute, a right uppercut and left hook sent the American staggering across the ring. Breazeale began round three with a swollen right eye, a round in which both fighters began trading power punches, with Joshua snapping Breazeale's head back with stiff jabs and a looping left hook in the final seconds of the round. Round four saw much of the same from Joshua, with Breazeale's punch output slowing, Joshua controlled the round with jabs and power punches. Near the halfway point of round five, Joshua landed a left hook to momentarily stun Breazeale, followed by a brief moment of success by the challenger with a right hand. The sixth was a slow-paced round, with Breazeale finding the target, resulting in a bloodied nose for Joshua. The end came in the seventh, with Breazeale backing up against the ropes, Joshua unloaded a barrage of punches to send the American to the canvas. Breazeale beat the referee's count of ten, only to be backed up again with a flurry of punches, ending with a left hand to send the challenger down for the second time and prompting the referee to call a halt to the fight. At the time of the stoppage, 1 minute 1 second into the round, Joshua was ahead on the scorecards, with all three judges scoring the bout 60–54.

Aftermath

Asked about Joshua's next opponent his promoter Eddie Hearn said: "November. We like the Joseph Parker fight, that's the mandatory, we'll have to deal with that at some point, whether that's November, December or whether that's March, April that's a good fight." he mentioned former long reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko as "a fight we'd love as well, but I'm always reluctant to make a fight of that magnitude in November", before adding "He needs a long rest. He needs to go and be a young boy, go and sit on the beach with his mates and mess around. It's been absolutely relentless." David Price and David Haye were also mentioned as options.

Fight card

Confirmed bouts: