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“Big Daddy” Lucas Browne became Australia’s first world heavyweight champion with a stunning stoppage of WBA titlist Ruslan Chagaev on Saturday in front of a packed Colosseum Sport Hall in Grozny, Russia.
Browne had never faced an opponent of Chagaev’s skill and started off his first world title opportunity with understandable caution.
For a 6’5 tall, 250 lb man, the challenger danced on his toes and slipped Chagaev’s jabs with remarkable athleticism, making the shorter champion work hard to try and shorten the distance Browne maintained.
As the bout wore one, the fighters slowed down a bit and each began to land power shots upstairs and down. Chagaev’s southpaw left hands were quicker and more accurate but when Browne’s right hands found the target, it was plain to see that he carried more weight in his punches.
Chagaev’s determined efforts to pin down his rival paid off near the end of the sixth frame as Browne was caught with a beautiful straight left and crumpled to the canvas. The Aussie beat the count but was in deep water as Chagaev put in his best efforts but could not finish off “Big Daddy” before the bell ended the round.
Browne began the seventh taking more chances as the knockdown definitely put him behind the scorecards but the champion was the busier man that round and the next.
The ninth saw Chagaev begin to tire and the pair began trading punches again, each landing with authority, a very dangerous approach for the champion to take given Browne’s awesome power.
In the tenth, Browne landed a perfect short counter right to the jaw that Chagaev never saw coming and the force of the shot bowled the stocky southpaw over onto his back, nearly doing a somersault on the canvas.
The Uzbekistan born champion had difficulty beating the count and was taking hard punches along the ropes as Browne jumped right in and forced a referee stoppage at 2:27 of the round.
Browne wins the WBA title, improving to 24-0 (21), and suddenly makes the heavyweight division a much more interesting weight class. The first thing on his horizon is probably a mandatory defense against Fres Oquendo.
Chagaev drops to 34-3-1 (21) and sees and end to his second reign as WBA boss after one successful defense.
Also on Saturday, there were two good fights in America on a bill at the Washington DC Armory.
Former WBA light welter titlist Jesse Vargas, 27-1 (10), bounced back from defeat against Tim Bradley in June for the Interim WBO welter strap and won the vacant WBO 147 pound belt with a ninth round finishing of Saddam Ali, 22-1 (13), who suffered his first defeat.
Vargas was ahead in the contest at the time of the stoppage due to fighting behind an efficient jab but Ali did land a lot of power punches, which could be a problem for the newly minted champion should he square off against a harder punching foe.
Should Bradley get past Manny Pacquiao in their third fight, scheduled for next month in Las Vegas, expect to see a Bradley vs. Vargas rematch this autumn.
The undercard at the Armory saw the brightest new talent in the heavyweight division in the form of Cuba born Luis Ortiz, 24-0 (22), who battered late replacement veteran opponent Tony Thompson, 40-7 (27) for six rounds in a battle of southpaws.
Obviously, neither 36 year old Ortiz nor 44 year old Thompson are spring chickens anymore but Ortiz displayed far more agility, quickness and sheer ability as Thompson was decked in the first and third rounds with sweeping power shots.
The Interim WBA champion lived up to his fearsome reputation as he stalked the challenger, absorbing some meaty punches along the way with no problems whatsoever until he seemed to decide that he’d like to end matters and did just that with a hard left that dropped Thompson for good at 2:29 of the sixth frame.
With Ortiz and the previously mentioned Lucas Browne now in contention for the top spot in the division, the heavyweight picture is definitely heating up.
There are several interesting bouts coming up later this year – Tyson Fury’s WBA super and WBO title defense rematch against Wladimir Klitschko, IBF king Charles Martin’s defense against Anthony Joshua and WBC champ Deontay Wilder’s defense against Alexander Povetkin – making for the most interesting heavyweight division in quite some time.
A possible Fury vs. Joshua unification clash would definitely fill a football stadium in the UK should it occur and would definitely be the biggest revenue generator of all the potential heavyweight matchups later this year.
