Browne Moves Up Heavyweight Ladder After Toney Victory

Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne moved a few more rungs up the heavyweight ladder by defeating legendary American veteran James Toney in Melbourne on Sunday.

Browne, 34, controlled the contest from the first bell until the last and was rewarded with a wide unanimous decision as well as the WBF title.

It’s a win which underlines the big punching Aussie’s potential for the top and even impressed his newest fan – Hollywood actor Ewan McGregor.

But Browne isn’t getting too excited just yet.

He said: “I wasn’t really pleased overall with my performance. I won and I’m very happy, but there’s more work that needs to be done. Toney was slick and avoided my right hand, but had no answer to my nice crisp jab, which left him with 30 stitches in his mouth to sort out.”

Browne added: “It was nice to have such a great turn out including Ewan McGregor in support.”

While he himself might not be getting too carried away after Sunday’s victory, Browne’s manager and trainer Matt Clark believes it’s a performance which will make heavyweights around the world sit up and take notice.

“I’m delighted about his performance,” Clark said. “Lucas showed he’s able to box comfortably over twelve rounds and demonstrated that he isn’t just a slugger. We knew that, but perhaps some boxing fans didn’t.

“Toney was looking for Lucas’s right hand, but Lucas managed to feed him the jab almost at will. He learned plenty by traveling the distance with a veteran. I know Ricky Hatton is ecstatic about the result and we’re ready to discuss Lucas’s options moving forward.”