Dominic Breazeale has likened Deontay Wilder to a ‘little chihuahua’ in response to the latter’s murderous threats made earlier this week.

WBC heavyweight champion Wilder courted controversy when he said he was ‘trying to get me a body on my record’ in the build-up to his grudge match with Breazeale this weekend.

“This is the only sport where you can kill a man and get paid for it at the same time," Wilder controversially said.

“It’s legal, so why not use my right to do so?”

It is not the first time the Bronze Bomber has claimed he wants to take the life of an opponent, but Breazeale believes it is just an empty threat.

Not even a day has gone by and Breazeale has replied at his own media training event.

“I’ve been staying away from the interviews,” he said, as per talkSPORT. “Wilder’s been saying some crazy stuff.

“I don’t think he means it man, I think he’s in a situation where he’s got to talk and talk and talk until he finally feels comfortable in what he’s doing.

“He’s gotta build himself up just so he can feel like, ‘I’m able to do this, I’m able to do that’.

“I haven’t looked at it the way most people have looked at it, I know he said he wanted a body on his record and he wanted to kill me.

“Let him say all he wants to say, that’s like a little chihuahua barking and barking at the fence. As soon as the fence gets opened up, he’s like, ‘Uhh, damn, what do I do now?”

Breazeale, who has only lost once in his professional career, and that came at the hands of Anthony Joshua, is expecting a ferocious fight and does not see it going the distance like Wilder’s last bout against Tyson Fury.

He added: “Hell no the fight’s not going the distance. How in the hell are you going to have two heavyweights. Nobody in that arena wants to see the fight go the distance.

“I know for sure it’s going to be fireworks from the opening bell. First, second, third, there might be a calm before the big storm in the fifth and the sixth but I guarantee you it’s not going the distance.

“Come Saturday night, man on man, one on one, we in the ring, we’ve gotta square off. You’ve gotta do what you’ve been saying you’re gonna do.”

The bitter American rivals will square off with Wilder’s WBC belt at stake on Saturday night in New York, and neither are willing to back down in the build-up.