By Ian S Palmer
Undefeated Dominic Breazeale is set to battle it out with fellow American and veteran heavyweight Amir Mansour in a 10-round bout this Saturday, January 23 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The bout is another episode in the Premier Boxing Champions Series (PBC) and fans in the U.S. and Canada can catch all of the action live on the Fox network. Fans in the UK can see it live on BoxNation. Breazeale is an undefeated former Olympian who will be stepping up in class against an aging fighter who still has a lot left in the tank.
The 30-year-old Breazeale of Alhambra, California enters the contest with a perfect mark of 16-0 with 14 Kos to his name. He’s one of the bigger heavyweights around at 6-foot-7 and possesses a reach of 81.5 inches. He’s certainly able to pack some power in his punches as his current knockout ratio is an impressive 88 per cent. Breazeale likes to stay active as he won three fights last year and is fighting again in the first month of the new year. He stopped Victor Bisbal in the fourth round last March and then stopped Yasmany Consuegra in the third round three months later. However, he went the distance in November when he beat veteran Fred Kassi by a 10-round unanimous decision. He’s gone 52 rounds since turning pro in 2012 after a fine amateur career.
The 43-year-old Mansour of Wilmington, Delaware also has a fine record as he’s 22-1-1 with 16 Kos. His draw was a 10-round split affair against Gerald Washington in October in his last bout. Mansour’s lone defeat came at the hands of Steve Cunningham by way of in April of 2014 even though Cunningham was decked twice. Mansour stands 6-foot-1 and has a 74-inch reach. Therefore, he has a decided disadvantage when it comes to age, height, and reach, but he has the edge inexperience and the power factor is debatable. Mansour turned pro in 1997 and has gone 107 rounds with a knockout ratio of 67 per cent. He’s been pretty active since getting out of prison in 2010 after about a decade out of boxing.
Breazeale has only gone 10 rounds once in his career and Mansour has reached that plateau five times since the summer of 2011 as well as three of his past four outings. Mansour’s biggest wins have been against Dominick Guinn, Epifanio Mendoza, Kelvin Price and Kassi while Breazeale’s biggest tests have been Mendoza, Kassi and Nagy Aguilera. Both boxers have good power so we could see some fireworks in this one.
Prediction
Since Breazeale, who is an ex-football player, is so big he should take his time and fight from the outside while making sure he catches the smaller Mansour on the way in. It’s hard to rate Breazeale’s chin at this point since he hasn’t faced anybody with as much power as Mansour. If he can handle Mansour’s power then his size advantage should be enough to allow him to box his way to a win. Breazeale’s got dynamite in his fists too though so he could be tempted to go for a Ko and will get one if Mansour’s chin lets him down. This is another close one and it’ll come down to power and chins. Let’s say each boxer goes down, but Breazeale comes out triumphant.
