Lucas Browne vs. Andriy Rudenko this Friday

By Boxing News - 07/30/2014 - Comments

Boxing Sheffield Ponds Forge 18By Scott Gilfoid: #8 WBC Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (20-0, 18 KOs) will be fighting unbeaten Ukrainian Andriy Rudenko (24-0, 16 KO’s) this Friday night in heavyweight action at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom.

This is an important fight for the 35-year-old Browne, because he can’t afford to lose it if he wants to keep on pace to get an eventual title shot in 2-3 years. Browne is ranked high enough to where he could in theory get picked out by the WBC heavyweight champion in an optional title shot, but the more likely reality is that Brown is going to need to fight his way to the WBC mandatory sport before he gets a shot.

Rudenko, 6’0”, is a small heavyweight without much hand speed but with decent power. He looks more like a cruiserweight than a heavyweight, and he’s probably going to have a tough time taking Browne’s power shots in this fight.

Australia’s Jeff Fenech believes that Browne has the kind of talent to win a world title at WBA and WBC. I’m not sure that I agree with him, but that’s his belief.

“The WBC and WBA champions are both beatable. If Lucas keeps getting the best sparring then he could be fighting for a world title in six months,” said Fenech, who himself won world honours in three weight divisions. “Preparation is everything and as long as he gets the right camp, he’ll be ready.

Australia has never had a world champion in the heavyweight division and I think for Lucas to become the first would be an incredible thing. Alex Leapai went over to Germany to fight Klitschko and he had tremendous support but Lucas can go a step further than that.”

I really don’t see Brown as having the talent to win a world title. He’s too slow, too hittable and too heavy on his feet for him to capture a world title from what I can see of him. I do think he could beat guys like Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury without any problems though.

Browne biggest wins of his career have come against Eric Martel Bahoeli, Richard Towers, James Toney, Clarence Tillman, and Jason Gaverne. The win over Bahoeli came in Browne’s last fight in April via 5th round stoppage, and it was a life and death type of a fight.

Browne struggled badly to beat a guy that would likely would have been taken out in the first round against the likes of Deontay Wilder or Wladimir Klitschko. It obviously wasn’t a good sign that Browne had to fight so hard to beat this guy because it should have been an easy fight.



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