Breazeale: Wilder is a disgrace, will retire when I beat him

Saturday’s WBC title challenger thinks he’ll break Wilder mentally.

Dominic Breazeale is a big underdog this coming Saturday, when he faces WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder in a Showtime main event from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, but the former college football quarterback is confident that he’ll win, and that Wilder will never fight again.

“I think he finds it humbling and I think it ends his career, it retires him. A guy like Wilder, the surrounding that he has, he’s not used to being down in the dumps and being a depressed individual. I think it cripples him, it sends him into some type of a depression and he never comes back to fight again. ... He’s a disgrace for not only American boxing, for heavyweight boxing in general.”

Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KO) hasn’t fought since he went to a disputed draw with Tyson Fury on Dec. 1, but Fury’s also the only opponent that has ever had Wilder in any real danger of losing a fight, other than Luis Ortiz in spots.

Breazeale (20-1, 18 KO) has won three straight since his 2016 loss to Anthony Joshua, beating Izuagbe Ugonoh, Eric Molina, and Carlos Negron.

Breazeale’s big chance on Saturday is catching Wilder with something clean and hard — he does have a good right hand, so it’s not out of the question. But he’s also shown big vulnerability in the past. Joshua dropped him twice and stopped him, which is one thing, but he’s also gone down against Amir Mansour and Ugonoh. Wilder may not be the best technical boxer, but nobody doubts his raw power.