LUCAS BROWNE STUNS CHAGAEV, GIVES AUSTRALIA ITS FIRST WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 06 Mar 2016
Lucas ?Big Daddy? Browne has stunned WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev with a 10th round TKO to give Australia its first world heavyweight title in the history of boxing.
The Melbourne Age reported that Browne ?showed enormous heart, coming back from a disastrous sixth round in which he was cut and knocked down by the southpaw from Uzbekistan in his second title defense.?
But the Australian ?dug deep and landed several right uppercuts in the seventh, in a stirring comeback and took the round.?
The 37 year old Chagaev however regained his composure and probably shaded the next two rounds, but Browne sent shockwaves through the division in the tenth.
The Age reported that Browne ?caught Chagaev with a crunching right to the head inside the last minute of the round, depositing the champion on the canvas. Sensing an opportunity to finish the fight there and then, Browne capitalized on his opportunity, landing several more right hand shots to the head before experienced South African referee Stanley Christodoulou stopped the fight.?
Browne improved his record to 24-0, 21 KOs and Chagaev dropped to 34-3-1, 21 KOs.
Browne showed he was much more than a big puncher as he delivered on his pre-fight promise to box and move. He pinned the champion with jabs through the early rounds and landed the occasional right hand.
Chagaev worked his way into the fight through the middle rounds, landing some good shots to the body and tagging Browne with some good left hands.
Browne wins the so-called regular version of the WBA belt, while Britain's Tyson Fury is considered the WBA's "unified" champion, since he also holds the WBO version.
Well known Aussie promoter Peter Maniatis was elated over Browne?s win. He told The Standard it was ?a very brave, strong win by Browne who did not panic and waited and stuck to his game plan.?
Maniatis noted that Browne was behind on points going into the 10th round but as we know in the heavyweight division one power punch can change the fight and Browne landed a right hand bomb on Ruslan.?
Boxing Scene reported that coming into the fight, Chagaev won his last seven outings. He captured the vacant WBA title in July of 2014 with a close twelve round decision over Fres Oquendo.
He returned last July, with new trainer Pedro Diaz of Cuba at his side, to make the first defense of his title with a first round destruction of Francesco Pianeta in the first round.
The only two fighters to more of less dominate Chagaev were former champions and Olympic gold medal winners Wladimir Klitschko (2009) and Alexander Povetin (2011).
Chagaev is a two-time champion and the first man to defeat the Russian giant Nikolai Valuev.
Browne, who is promoted by former world champion Ricky Hatton, has been pecking away for quite some time in the ranks. He has some decent wins on his record but very vulnerable to getting hit, cuts and being drawn into slugfests.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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