By Scott Gilfoid: Australian 36-year-old WBA #3 heavyweight contender Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (23-0, 20 KOs) had to labor hard on Friday night to defeated 38-year-old journeyman Julius Long (16-19, 14 KOs) by a disappointing 9th round stoppage on Friday night at The Melbourne Pavilion, Flemington, Victoria, Australia.
Browne knocked Long down twice in the fight in putting him down in the 8th and 9th rounds. Browne finished Long off with a left to the head in the 9th. The referee Tony Maretta didn’t bother to count and halted the fight at 2:59 of the 9th.
Long came into the fight having lost 10 out of his last 11 fights. It’s unclear why Browne chose to fight someone like that. But I have my suspicions that he was concerned with keeping his unbeaten record. What better way to keep an unbeaten record than to pick out an easy mark like Long.
By the 6th round, Long was totally exhausted. He had nothing left and was just covering up on the ropes. Every once in a while, Long would come to life by landing some nice left hands to the head of Browne. Long was real sneaky in landing his lefts. He would be doing nothing for most of the round and then all of a sudden he’d nail an unsuspecting Browne with a left to the head or body that would stop Browne kin his tracks.
What was interesting about the fight was how the light hitting Long was able to hurt Browne twice in the fight. He had Browne hurt in the 3rd and 4th rounds after nailing him with a left to the body and a left to the head. Had someone with good power been in the ring with the plodding Browne like Deontay Wilder, I don’t think for a second that Browne would have made it past two rounds. He’s just too slow on his feet and so easy to hit.
Long was listed at 7’1”, but he looked to be only five to six inches taller than the 6’4” Browne, which would make Long 6’10” at the most.
“It was a great fight so thanks to Julius for taking the fight on short notice. I broke my thumb and that gave me problems,” Browne said after the fight via fightnews.com.
I don’t buy the thumb excuse for why Browne looked so terrible in this fight. I mean, Browne was looking terrible in the 1st round and was taking a lot of shots from Long.
Based on this performance, I give Browne zero chance of defeating WBA “regular” heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev when they get around to facing each other in 2016 or 2017. Browne is just too slow on his feet, and his power looks to be completely overrated. Browne doesn’t have the Deontay Wilder type power where if he hits you with one shot, you drop to the canvas and are counted out. Browne has to land a ton of shots before his opponents finally drop. That’s not going to work against a skilled professional like Chagaev. He’s going to beat Browne up on the inside and stop him in two or three rounds.
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