FORMER undisputed heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe believes boxing fans will be hailing a new “Big Daddy” on March 5.
The Brooklyner ruled the roost in the land of the giants back in the early ’90s, beating the likes of Evander Holyfield, Bruce Seldon and Michael Dokes.
And now he’s tipping Australia’s Lucas Browne to follow in his footsteps by halting reigning WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev in Grozny, Chechnya.
TWO-TIME world heavyweight champion Hasim “The Rock” Rahman is backing Lucas Browne to knock Ruslan Chageav out.
Browne travels to the Russian Republic of Chechnya to face the reigning WBA king on March 5.
And Rahman believes the hard-hitting Aussie has enough in his locker to score a victory similar to his own stunning stoppage of British great Lennox Lewis 15 years ago.
He said: “Get ready Aussies, y’all have a new heavyweight champion! Lucas has the size and the strength to become champ.
By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) won’t be able to fight in November in his home country of Russia like he had been planning on doing. According to Kovalev’s promoters at Main Events, there are scheduling issues that will prevent him from fighting in November like he had wanted to.
The idea is now for the 32-year-old Kovalev to fight in January 2016 against an opponent still to be determined.
“11/28 Krusher Kovalev fight in Russia is off. He will instead fight Jan on HBO boxing as he moves toward a fight with Andre Ward in 2016,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.
By Scott Gilfoid: IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (29-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title against IBF interim champion and former WBO belt holder Victor Emilio Ramirez (22-2, 17 KOs) on October 2nd in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to news from Dan Rafael. This venue will give the 31-year-old Ramirez the home country advantage, which might help him a bit but not a whole lot.
Ramirez is a pretty primitive fighter in the Marco Huck mold, and he’s very beatable against certain types of fighters. Huck was able to beat Ramirez at his own game in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision to take his WBO cruiserweight title in 2009 in a slugfest.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YynE8LZDVOk
By Jim Dower: WBA World heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (34-2-1, 21 KOs) had an easy 1st round knockout win over #12 WBA fringe contender Francesco Pianeta (31-2-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night to retain his World Boxing Association title at the GETEC Arena in Magdeburg, Germany.
By Allan Fox: WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (33-2-1, 20 KOs) will be making his first defense of his WBA title in two months from now against fringe contender #13 WBA Francesco Pianeta (31-1, 17 KOs) on July 11th at the GETEC Arena in Magdeburg, Germany.
Pianeta, 6’5”, is getting another shot at a world title after being knocked out by IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2013 in a 6th round knockout loss. Pianeta hasn’t done a whole lot since then in beating Robert Teuber, Mickael Vieira and Ivica Bacurin.
The whole boxing world was shocked by the sudden death of Fritz Sdunek late last year. One of the people affected most by the passing of the legendary trainer was regular WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev who was working out with Sdunek only days before the coach passed away. “Fritz was one of the best human beings I ever met and also probably the best boxing trainer in the world”, states Chagaev. “He can never be fully replaced but I am happy that we found another coach who is working and thinking as professional and analytic as Fritz.”
By Gerardo Granados: Back in 1989 the Berlin wall fall and as a domino the Soviet Union came to an end, it also came to an end the politics that prevented many brave and skillful fighters to join the ranks of prize fighting, fortunately for us fight fans now a days we can see how many hungry lions have come out from the Iron Curtain to compete and to rule supreme as boxing champions.
It is no secret that you will find many fighters who have succeeded coming from very humble origins.
LUCAS “BIG DADDY” BROWNE believes he should be given a shot at the WBA interim heavyweight title or even regular champion Ruslan Chagaev in the wake of the Luis Ortiz doping scandal.
Ortiz won the interim strap with a one round KO of Lateef Kayode in September, but the result has now been made a no contest and the belt is likely to be declared vacant after the Cuban tested positive for the banned substance Nandrolone.