By Ian S Palmer
American heavyweights Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina will clash in a 12-round at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, November 4th. The fight can be seen live in the UK on Sky Sports while American fans can tune into Showtime. Breazeale last fought in February when he stopped Izuagbe Ugonoh in the fifth round. Molina’s last outing took place in September when he beat Jamal Woods by a six-round majority decision.
The 32-year-old of Breazeale of Alhambra, California is a former 2012 Olympian and will enter the contest with an impressive mark of 18-1 with 16 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 84 per cent. His lone loss came at the hands of IBF and WBA Champion Anthony Joshua as he stopped the American in the seventh round in June of 2016.
Breazeale has a decent chin and has beaten the likes of Amir Mansour, Victor Bisbal, Yasmany Consuegra, Billy Zumbrun, Nagy Aguilera and Fred Kassi. He’s gone just 69 rounds since turning pro in 2012 after a fine amateur career. He’s gone 10 rounds once in his career and that was against Kassi. He hasn’t fought top opposition on a consistent basis, but was relatively competitive in his outing against Joshua in Manchester last year.
The 35-year-old Molina of Weslaco, Texas enters the fight with a record of 26-4 with 19 Kos. He challenged WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder in June of 2015 in Wilder’s first defence of his belt and put up a good fight before being stopped in the ninth round. He then took on Joshua last December in Manchester and was stopped in the third round. Molina has decent size and power too at 6-foot-4 with a 79-inch reach and a knockout ratio of 63 per cent.
Molina has the advantage in pro experience with 129 rounds under his belt since turning pro in 2007. However, his chin is quite susceptible as all four of his career losses have been by been by KO with two of them coming in the first round. Chris Arreola dropped him in 2012 and Ashanti Jordan stopped him in back in 2007 in Molina’s pro debut. Molina’s biggest wins up to now have been against the likes of Tomasz Adamek, DaVarryl Williamson and Tony Grano.
Molina will be giving up three inches in height and 2.5 inches in reach to Breazeale and will need to use his jab to work his way on the inside of his taller opponent. If he can get close to him Molina needs to make it an ugly fight and simply hope for the best and test Breazeale’s chin as often as possible. These aren’t two of the world’s elite heavyweights at the moment, but they’re both solid and seasoned pros and this should be a competitive contest.
Prediction…
Breazeale has the edge here when it comes to age, size and power, while Molina gets the nod in experience. However, the difference will likely be their chins and up to this point of their careers it looks like Breazeale has the better whiskers and I’ll be going with him.
