By Marcus Richardson: Lucas Browne’s face was badly swollen and cut up after his 6th round knockout loss to Dillian Whyte last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England. A photo of the 38-year-old Browne’s face was posted on social media, and he looked like a complete mess.
Browne looks in terrible shape like someone coming from an automobile accident rather than a boxing match. It was the former WBA heavyweight champion Browne’s first career defeat, and he now has a record of 25-1 with 22 knockouts.
Browne says he intends on coming back from the loss. If he does, he needs to stay more active with his career, and get his weight down. Browne might want to consider retirement. He can’t take punishment like this. Sticking around and continuing his career might be a mistake. Browne will likely be pushed out of the top 15 rankings following this defeat to Whyte. Going into the fight, Browne was rated #13 WBC and #14 WBA.
Looks fine lmao mascara still on point pic.twitter.com/3v5mJ7j7D5
— mikehunt (@Tikemyson6) March 25, 2018
It’s almost certain that Browne will lose his top 15 rankings. For Browne to have a chance at a big money title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, he’ll need to get ranked highly by one of the sanctioning bodies, and perhaps even No.1. It could take Browne years for him to receive a No.1 ranking, especially with him fighting so rarely. Browne’s slow hand speed makes it difficult to picture him being able to beat a top 10 contender in the division. Browne hits hard, but he’s very slow, and he appears to have lost hand speed since his 10th round knockout win over Ruslan Chagaev in 2016.
Browne’s conditioning for the fight last Saturday against Whyte wasn’t the best. Browne looked to be carrying around extra weight that limited his speed and mobility around the ring.
Browne took a beating last Saturday night at the hands of the 29-year-old Whyte in their televised fight on Sky Sports and HBO Boxing. Whyte knocked Browne unconscious with a left hook in the 6th round. It was scary looking. After the fight, Browne was put on oxygen and taken from the arena on a stretcher taken to a nearby hospital.
Browne says he had trouble seeing out of his cut left eye. He suffered the injury in the 2nd round, and the cut bled for the entire fight. In the 5th, Browne was bleeding from his left eye and his nose. It was clear that he wasn’t going to last much longer unless he scored a knockout. It was Whyte that scored the knockout though.
Browne later posted this message on his social media site:
”Hi everyone. Thanks very much for the love and support. It wasn’t my night and massive respect to Dillian Whyte for his performance. My eye was giving me trouble from the second and you can’t protect from what you can’t see. I’m all good and I will be back.”
Whyte, 29, put in an impressive performance in dominating Browne with his sharp punches, and limiting his connect rate. It was one of Whyte’s best performances of his career by far. If Whyte had fought like that in his previous fights, he’d be a world champion by now.
Whyte had this message for Browne via Sky Sports News:
‘Hopefully Lucas Browne’s okay, he showed up to fight and tried but I knew that would happen.”
That wasn’t exactly the most graceful comment by Whyte in saying, “I knew that would happen.” Whyte has been on the receiving end up a knockout himself, so it’s not as if he’s the greatest heavyweight on the planet right now. Anthony Joshua knocked Whyte out in the 7th round in 2015. Whyte arguably lost to Derek Chisora in 2016. Whyte is a good fighter, but he’s not talented enough for him to boast about himself. The guy still has a lot to prove at this point.
The way Browne was knocked out was worrying, as he went down flat on his face in round 6 after getting hit hard by a 4-punch combination from Whyte. When Browne hit the canvas, he didn’t stir for several moments. He just laid there on his face. The left hook that hit Browne was a shot that he never saw. It was a hard punch, but it was more of a case of Browne not seeing it coming.
Browne looked like he didn’t do enough cardio work for the Whyte fight. Browne’s midsection looked thick, as if he hadn’t trained hard enough.
”I would like to fight Anthony Joshua another three, four, five times in my career,” Whyte said. ”Me and him have chemistry, we bring a lot out of each other. These are big fights, but if me and him step into the ring, something sparks. It’s like we are two lifetime lovers.”
Whyte will at least get one more fight against Joshua if he doesn’t get beaten by someone like WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) before he gets that second shot.
Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn is poised to make a big money offer to Wilder on Monday to try and get him to come over to England to face Whyte in June. The offer will be more than the previous $3 million offer Hearn gave to Wilder, which was rejected by him.
”Deontay Wilder, where you at, let’s go… let’s do this, June, live at the O2!” Whyte said after the fight last Saturday.
Joshua reportedly bet £25 on Whyte to defeat Browne in the sixth round and won £650 with him knocking him out in that round.
Joshua bragged about his successful bet on social media afterwards, saying ”Quick earner! I know my boxing. Well done Dillian Whyte & Lucas Big Daddy Browne — Good Show.”
Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) is set to make a lot more money than that this Saturday night in his unification fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Joshua will make £20million for the Parker fight, which will be televised on Sky Box Office and Showtime Boxing. The future is bright for Joshua if he wins the fight.