Family Man 1st, Dominic Breazeale Ready to Do What's Needed to Be a Boxing Star
He’s an undefeated heavyweight contender, a United States Olympian that represented his country at the 2012 Summer Games in London, an avid gardener and, most importantly, a father.
Dominic Breazeale is an American success story. There’s something here for everyone.
The 30-year-old was set to fight Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC, but his bout was canceled after scheduled opponent Charles Martin withdrew for a shot to compete for the recently vacated IBF Heavyweight Championship.
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What comes next is up in the air, but there's little doubt Breazeale will be ready for it.
Breazeale has stared down and overcome many challenges in his life, but the ones he faces now are particularly tricky at times. It’s hard to find the time to be a fighter when your most important job is making sure you’re always a father first.
“The biggest part of being a professional boxer is balancing being the athlete, the business guy, as well as being a husband and loving father,” Breazeale told Bleacher Report on Wednesday. “It makes for a long day.
“Every day is really long. It starts at 5:30 in the morning and ends at midnight.”
Breazeale’s balancing act is one that can resonate with many Americans, though hopefully many of you aren’t experiencing 19-hour days on the regular, if ever. He says he took up gardening, completely redesigning his backyard on several occasions, to help relax and decompress from his fighting responsibilities.
It's not often you hear that from a towering heavyweight puncher, but you can understand his need for relaxing activities.
He’s up before the sun six days a week, just a couple of hours after finally placing his head on the pillow, to run a few miles before rushing home to take off his fighter hat and be dad for his three children, ages seven, three and two.
Breazeale never had a relationship with his own father, who was in and out of prison, so the desire to be successful, provide for his children and be a positive role model comes from a need to give his kids what he didn’t have growing up.
Something that can satisfy all of those goals?
Becoming the heavyweight champion of the world, a dream he says began when he returned from the London Olympics.
“Any time you get a chance to represent your country is phenomenal. Win, lose or draw,“ Breazeale said. “When I came back to the gym after the Olympics I had a fire lit under me. I wanted to be the next big thing.
“I wasn’t satisfied with being Dominic Breazeale the Olympian. I wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world.”
That goal feels a lot more attainable now than it did just a few weeks ago.
Tyson Fury’s toppling of long-reigning kingpin Wladimir Klitschko opened the floodgates of the division once more.
The IBF title is already vacant, which cost Breazeale an opponent Saturday, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see the WBA and/or WBO belts come up for grabs too, should Fury elect to forgo his mandatory defenses, which seems likely.
Deontay Wilder holds the WBC title, and the first American to hold a heavyweight belt will defend it at the Barclays Center on January 16 against Polish contender Artur Szpilka.
A shot at Wilder could bring Breazeale closer to his ultimate goal, which is to hold all the belts and be the champion of boxing’s glamour division, so it makes sense that's the direction he's looking first.
“Deontay Wilder is the guy I want. He’s got the WBC title,” Breazeale said. “Tyson Fury would be another guy I’d like to get to.
“If it was up to me it’d be a royal rumble. Put them in the ring at the same time so I can get all the belts at once.”
Breazeale feels that he’ll be lined up and ready for a title opportunity sometime in 2016.
At the same time, he acknowledges that the job of a fighter is to be a lifelong learner. The fighter that stops learning, who doesn’t take something from each fight, win or lose, is the one who stagnates and gets passed by.
He doesn’t intend to be that guy, taking plenty of lessons from his last fight, a narrow and controversial decision over Fred Kassi on PBC in September.
“The fight against Fred Kassi was a tough one. I learned a lot from it. It was great to get that experience,” Breazeale said.
“I abandoned my jab a lot. I was just kind of swinging for the fences and trying to hit something.. I’ve got film on myself to see what I did right, what I did wrong. That’s the type of fighter I am. I’m a student of the game.”
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. All quotes were obtained personally.
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