Why Wasn’t Brewster Used as a Replacement Opponent for Valuev?

By Dave Lahr: If you’re like me, you have to wonder why former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster wasn’t used as a replacement for WBA heavyweight champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev yesterday in order to save his title bout against Nikolay Valuev which ended up getting cancelled after the Finland boxing medical team discovered an existing illness for Chagaev.

You’ve got Brewster who was fighting on the same card against some unknown Finland fighter in a fight that had no importance other than serving as an easy tune-up opponent for Brewster to knockout in a few rounds. Why precisely wasn’t Brewster used to replace Chagaev and thus save the 11 fight undercard for the bout?

The fight was supposed to take place on Saturday night in Helsinki, Finland, and there were reportedly a massive amount of German people that had purchased tickets for the fight. Wouldn’t you think that Brewster would be the ideal opponent for Valuev. Brewster is built much like Chagaev, perhaps a couple inches taller if that, but he’s the same kind of fighter for the most part.

Valuev wouldn’t have had to go back to the drawing board to train for anything different than what he’d be getting if he faced Chagaev. Isn’t Chagaev nicknamed the White Tyson? In truth, I doubt that Valuev’s team wanted any part of Brewster, because he punches much harder than Chagaev and has knockout power in either hand.

There’s no way that Valuev would have wanted to mix it up with a fighter like Brewster, who would have relished the idea of fighting the huge stationary 7-foot 320 pound Russian giant. There would be no powerful jab, left hook or right hand to hold Brewster back like in his two fights with Wladimir Klitschko, and I could see Brewster walking out and destroying Valuev with a flurry of left hooks and right hands to the head.

This very could have been a repeat of Brewster’s 1st round destruction of Andrew Golota or maybe even worse. Brewster stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 5th round in 2004 after hurting him badly with a left hook to the head. Against a big, slow heavyweight like Valuev, it would be strictly target practice for Brewster to tee off with his big power shots.

I can’t see Brewster for a second not wanting to step in and replace Chagaev as Valuev’s opponent. Most likely, Valuev probably said no way, I need more training for months in isolation before I can fight someone like Brewster.

It would matter how much training Valuev did for a fight against Brewster, it wouldn’t be enough and he’d get destroyed quickly. Valuev doesn’t have the style to beat a big puncher like Brewster and would be in immediate trouble if Valuev had fought Brewster.

It’s really too, though, because it would have been a storybook type outcome for Brewster, who was out of the sport for a year after he suffered an eye injury in his loss to Sergey Lyakhovich in 2006, and was given up as a washed up fighter at that point. For Brewster to step in on short notice and knock Valuev out would have been an incredible event for boxing. It’s too bad that it didn’t happen.

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