Lucas Browne: I’ll KO Dillian Whyte impressively

By Boxing News - 01/11/2018 - Comments

Image: Lucas Browne: I’ll KO Dillian Whyte impressively

By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA World heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) says he’s going to knockout WBC Silver strap holder Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) in their fight on March 24 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

With a win over Whyte, 29, Browne will become the World Boxing Council mandatory challenger to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder. Whyte is currently rated #1 with the WBC, but he’s still not the mandatory yet. The winner of the Browne vs. Whyte fight will be Wilder’s mandatory challenger. Some boxing fan would say that the Whyte-Browne winner will be the sacrificial lamb for Wilder to beat in 2019. Wilder is looking unbeatable right now, and Whyte and Browne lack the speed to stand in there with Wilder. It might be another 1st round knockout job for Wilder against the Whyte vs. Browne winner.

“I know if I stop Whyte impressively I’ll be getting another world title shot,” said the 38-year-old Browne to skysports.com. “I’m genuinely looking forward to coming over to the UK again and bashing Dillian. If Helenius and Dereck Chisora hurt him, wait until he feels how I hit,” said Browne.

The 2 heavyweights dislike each other intensely. There’s been a lot of back and forth trash talking that has been doing for a while now.

Whyte and his promoter Eddie Hearn had hoped to get Deontay Wilder to agree to fight Whyte in the UK at the O2. Hearn felt that Wilder needed to earn the unification fight against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua by beating Whyte, who he also promotes in his Matchroom Sport stable. Wilder wasn’t too keen on having to earn a unification fight, which isn’t surprising. It would have put Wilder in a one down position below Joshua if he’d agreed to fight Whyte in order the opportunity to fight Joshua. It was real crazy stuff from Hearn. It’s surprising he even considered having Wilder facing Whyte to earn a chance to fight Joshua. It kind of shows you what Wilder is up against when it comes to trying to negotiate a fight with Joshua. If Hearn is seeing Joshua above Wilder on a higher perch status-wise, it suggests that the negotiations may prove to be impossible for the Joshua fight. It wouldn’t be surprising if Joshua-Wilder fight never gets made.

Browne is a former WBA heavyweight champion. He was stripped of his WBA heavyweight title in May of 2016 after testing positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol following his 10th round knockout win over WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev on March 5, 2016. Browne didn’t fight for 15 months after that fight until facing journeyman Matthew Greer (16-20) on June 2 of last year. Browne destroyed Greer in 2 rounds. However, Browne hasn’t fought ever since. By the time Browne does fight Whyte on March 24, he’ll have been out of the ring for 9 months. That’s not good news for a fighter that is about to turn 39-years-old on April 14.

Browne has only had 1 fight in the last 2 years. If you’re Browne, you’re putting yourself in a bad situation by taking the fight with Whyte off the back of all that inactivity. You can’t count Browne’s fight against Greer as a real fight, because he knocked the guy out so quickly in 2 rounds. The Greer fight was useless and no real help to Browne’s rust level. For Browne to have gotten anything from the Greer fight, he would have needed to fight at least 9 to 10 rounds. What makes thing harder for Browne is the fight with Whyte is taking place in London, England. Whyte was involved in a controversial decision against Dereck Chisora in December 2016 with him winning a VERY questionable 12 round split decision. Boxing News 24 had Chisora winning that fight. It could be difficult for Browne to get a decision if the fight goes to the scorecards. Whyte is promoted by Eddie Hearn, and his promotional company is the lead promoter for the March 24 card. I’m just saying. Browne might need a knockout for him to win the fight.

”I don’t like anything about him. He’s a loud mouth and I want to take his head off,” said Browne.

Browne appears to genuinely dislike Whyte. This isn’t a theatrical put on by Browne. I would venture to say that Browne hates Whyte, and wants to blast him to smithereens on March 24. You can count on Browne doing his utmost best to make sure he plants Whyte on the canvas for the 10 count on the night.

Browne is catching Whyte at the right movement in his career with him coming off of a dreadful performance against Robert Helenius on October 28 in Cardiff, Wales. Whyte was staggered in round 2 of that fight, and he absorbed some big shots until Helenius stopped letting his hands go. Helenius took the fight with Whyte on short notice, and he looked he wasn’t well-trained enough to fight hard for more than 2 rounds. During those 2 rounds, Helenius was teeing off on Whyte with right hands. It’s a good thing for Whyte that Helenius got tired, because if he’d keep tagging him with big right hands, he would have knocked him out at some point.

Whyte is going in the wrong direction in trying to get a title shot against Deontay Wilder. To me, that’s a stupid move on Whyte’s part. He needs to be working his way to a title shot against the slower guy with a chin and stamina problems in Joshua. There’s more money for Whyte in a fight against Joshua, and he stands a better chance of winning. Whyte already proved that he could hurt Joshua in their fight in December 2015. Whyte had Joshua out on his feet in the 2nd round after nailing him with a left hook. Whyte injured his left shoulder in that round, and he was unable to use it for the remainder of the fight. Joshua was gassed out after the 2nd, and it took him 3 rounds to get his second wind. If Whyte hadn’t been injured in the 2nd, he would have likely knocked Joshua. Against Wilder, Whyte is going to be like another Bermane Stiverne. In other words, a big, slow guy that takes shots clean. I don’t see Whyte lasting more than 1 round against Wilder. It’s too bad he doesn’t have his head on straight, because I would never go for the idea of trying to get a title shot against Wilder rather than Joshua. I wonder if Whyte’s promoter Hearn planted this idea into his head. If so, Whyte should have seen it for what it is – an effort by Hearn to steer Whyte away from the golden goose Joshua.

“I can’t wait, I hate Lucas Browne and I want to hurt him,” said Whyte to skysports.com. “He’s said some nasty things and he’s going to have to pay for them. I don’t think he really wanted this fight. A deal was in place before then. He started to try and change the terms. He kept delaying things after we gave in to his demands,” said Whyte.

You can understand why Browne didn’t want to go for the initial deal that was on the table for the Whyte fight. It was smaller money than what he wanted. Why would Browne take an offer that he wasn’t satisfied with? After all, Browne is already agreeing to fight Whyte in his home country of the UK in front of his British boxing fans. Why should he also agree to take money that makes the fight not even worth taking? If Browne beats Whyte, he’s in the same situation as Whyte would have been with him staring at the formidable task of trying to find a way to defeat the 6’7” force of nature Deontay Wilder. Right now, Wilder appears to be the No.1 heavyweight in all of boxing. That’s not a knock on the 6’5”, 254lb Joshua. It’s just reality. Wilder is the zenith of his career right now. His 1-punch power makes him lethal to anyone he faces. Joshua’s punch resistance has disappeared since his fight with Wladimir Klitschko last year in April, and he’s turning himself into a Primo Carnera type heavyweight with his weight lifting. Wilder is the guy to beat in the heavyweight division. I think it would have been better off for Browne to go after Joshua rather than Deontay.

Browne is going to have to start a little earlier with his offense in the Whyte fight than he did against Chagaev in 2016. Browne did almost nothing in that fight until the 10th round. He fell far behind on the scorecards against the Russian heavyweight. Going into the 10th, Browne needed a knockout for him to have a chance of beating Chagaev. To Browne’s credit, he stopped Chagaev and briefly won the WBA heavyweight title. If Browne falls behind against Whyte, it’ll be harder to pull out the victory by scoring a knockout, because Dillian will likely get on his bike and try and coast to a victory rather taking any risks. That’s why the firs 6 rounds of the Whyte-Browne fight will be so important.