Always set to be broadcast in the UK on Sky Sports and picked up last minute stateside by HBO, the matchup of top ten heavyweights between England’s Dillian Whyte and Australia’s Lucas Browne is the only major fight of the weekend. Luckily, it could be a good one.
In a lot of ways, Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) is still mostly living off his competitive for a while loss to Anthony Joshua back at the very end of 2015. Really, he is mostly living off the first three rounds of that fight. Early on Dillian was a stern test for the soon to be British megastar, hurting him a bit along the way. It didn’t last, however. In the seventh, Joshua laid him out and that was all of that.
Since that night, Dillian Whyte has been on a five fight winning streak against decently soft competition. The two biggest names on that stretch have been Derek Chisora and Robert Helenius. The native Jamaican and London based heavyweight really went to war with Chisora in one of the better fights of 2016 and much more dully outboxed Helenius in his most recent contest in October. Yet, despite those being Whyte’s big wins, I should note that I have neither of them ranked in S8C Heavyweight top 25.
I do have Dillian Whyte in at #10. He can fight on some level for sure. Even though the fight against Helenius wasn’t a particularly engaging watch, Whyte showed some real improved in ring intelligence in that one. He had previously fallen too easily into brawls, but that night he kept his patience and boxed successfully for twelve rounds. That is a much more reassuring result than being drawn life and death with Derek Chisora.
Lucas Browne’s (25-0, 22 KOs) claim to fame was his come from behind knockout of former heavyweight titleholder Ruslan Chagaev a hair over two years ago now. Really, that is it for the 38 year old. He also has wins over a 43 year old, 250 pound James Toney and more middling heavyweights like Travis Walker and Andriy Rudenko, but only the Chagaev win really resonates near the world level.
Browne did show some things in that fight, good and bad. He showed he was mostly outclassed, which is definitely bad. Chagaev largely controlled that fight and nearly finished the big Australian in the sixth round. He also showed tremendous resolve, good stamina, and real power in making that through that to steal the fight in the tenth. Browne is competent, but he definitely isn’t skilled at world level. He can punch though and all bets are off if the fight devolves into that.
That is essentially the hope here from a non-partisan viewer’s perspective. I think Dillian Whyte is probably capable of outboxing Lucas Browne for twelve uneventful rounds, but no one is turning on their television or going to the arena to see that. Hopefully we get someone more like the Dillian Whyte who fought Derek Chisora here. It certainly isn’t his best path to victory, in fact it is Lucas Browne’s, but it is the best path to an enjoyable watch for boxing fans worldwide.
The Sky Sports broadcast begins at 3:30 PM Eastern time and will feature a full undercard. Also in action will be rising star Lewis Ritson (14-0, 8 KOs) and Frank Buglioni (21-2-1, 15 KOs) defending their lightweight and light heavyweight British titles against Scott Cardle (22-1-1, 7 KOs) and Callum Johnson (16-0, 11 KOs) respectively. The light heavyweight fight is a typical domestic dust up, but Lewis Ritson has emerged out of no where to be an interesting potential world level prospect with two good blowout wins over solid domestic foes. If he rolls over Scott Cardle too, Eddie Hearn could really have something here. HBO will pick up the show at 6 PM Eastern and only show the main event.
