By Adam Beechers: WBA #3 heavyweight contender Lucas Browne 22(19)-0 will be keeping active ahead of his mandatory challenge against Russia’s WBA World Champion Ruslan Chagaev 34(21)-2-1.
The hard hitting Australian has been inactive since his 5th round win over Kiwi Chauncy Welliver 55(22)-11-5 in November of last year. ‘Big Daddy’ Browne will have to wait until potentially 2016 for his shot at the Uzbek Champion due to Chagaev’s forced rematch with Puerto Rico’s Fres Oquendo 37(24)-8.
Browne, 36, has yet to step up to any decent class of opponent yet with his biggest wins coming against Richard Towers and Andriy Rudenko, who were both undefeated at the time. Browne will be in action against Argentinian journeyman Gonzalo Omar Basile 66(30)-11 on August 14th at the Melbourne Pavilion, Flemington, Victoria, according to Hatton Promotions.
“It’s a very tough fight and a potential banana skin for Lucas, but everyone knows how hard he hits and I think Lucas will score another knockout,” promoter Ricky Hatton said to ESPN.com. “Lucas is the kind of guy who wants to fight every week, and he’s obviously been disappointed with the delay [of the Chagaev bout]. Chagaev’s people wanted to delay the fight so they could face Francesco Pianeta and paid Lucas money to step aside. That fight got pushed back, and then Fres Oquendo went through the courts to get a rematch with Chagaev. Now we’re on the verge of everything being sorted out, and if Lucas gets past Basile, his next fight will be [for a belt].”
It should be short work for the 6ft 6″ fighter with an 86% KO percentage as Basile has been stopped 7 times in his 11 losses and the Argentine hasn’t been in with anyone of note. His only notable appearance with a decent heavyweight was his 4th round loss to Poland’s Artur Szpilka back in 2012.
Once Browne gets through this straight forward test he will be able to look forward to the challenge that Chagaev will offer and we will finally see how good of a heavyweight Browne is. Meanwhile on his personal twitter account he has been very vocal in engaging in arguments with WBC Champion Deontay Wilder and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko challenger Tyson Fury. If those fights became available to Browne he may jump onto those type of fights as no doubt he would earn more money and recognition if he were victorious.
Comments are closed.