By Matt Stein: Heavyweight Gbenga Oloukun (17-1, 10 KO’s) won a questionable eight-round unanimous decision over former WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster (35-5, 30 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The judges scored the fight for Oloukun 79-76, 77-75 and 77-75. I saw Brewster winning five rounds to three. Oloukun did nothing after fifth round and appeared to lose the last four rounds of the fight, including the 3rd round.
That’s not to say that Brewster looked great, because his work rate was low and he looked hesitant to throw punches until the 6th round. Oloukun made the mistake of bullying Brewster to the ropes where he tried to rough Brewster up with wrestling mixed with sneaky short punches.
As soon as the two fighters were separated and brought back to the center of the ring, Brewster went after Oloukun in the remaining seconds of the round, hitting him with two monstrous punches to the head that got Oloukun’s attention.
In the 7th round, Brewster landed some solid right hands to the head of Oloukun, along with a handful of powerful jabs. Brewster may be getting up there in age at 36, but he still has excellent power with both hands and one of the best jabs in the division. Oloukun did little in the 7th other than throwing jabs here and there and trying to clinch.
Brewster landed one big right hand that snapped Oloukun’s head around almost as if it was on a swivel. Brewster’s punch output still wasn’t all that good, particularly comparing him to his prime performances against Kali Meehan and Andre Golota, but it was enough to win the round.
In the 8th round, Brewster landed the much harder shots in the round. He caught Oloukun napping on a couple of occasions with right hands that landed cleanly. Oloukun looked like he was trying to run out the clock by moving a lot on the outside. He certainly wasn’t trying to mix it up with Brewster and win the round.
Brewster landed a hard left on the belt line that caused Oloukun to back away and bend over, trying to get the referee to give him a break. However, the referee told him to start fighting and didn’t allow Oloukun to take a time out. It was a good punch, but it definitely hurt Oloukun. After that big punch landed, Oloukun stayed moving and kept away from Brewster until the end of the fight.
Brewster didn’t looked good in the first two rounds. He threw nothing but jabs and pretty much gave the rounds away to Oloukun. Brewster most have thought that he would catch up to Oloukun later on in the fight, because it seems like an unwise move for Brewster not to have let his hands go in the opening two rounds and just giving them away to Oloukun.
This is possible to do in a 10 to 12 round fight, but not in only an eight round fight, which is what Brewster was competing in on Saturday night. Brewster came back in the 3rd round and landed several big right hands and a lot of hard jabs. Oloukun did little in the round and was limited to jabbing and a couple of left hands.
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