Lucas Browne Not Impressed With Wilder's Performance

By Jake Donovan

You can count Lucas Browne among those who weren't blown away by the performance turned in by Deontay Wilder over the weekend. 

Wilder made the first defense of his heavyweight title, scoring four knockdowns en route to a 9th round stoppage of Eric Molina at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The bout marked the first time the state of Alabama has ever played host to a heavyweight title fight, with 9,347 fans packing into the sold out arena in support of Wilder, who grew up less than an hour away in Tuscaloosa. 

A collective gasp from the capacity crowd came in round three when Molina—a 33-1 underdog going in—had Wilder on wobbly legs courtesy of a left hook. Wilder was able to clear his head, proceeding to floor Molina in the very next round before going on to eventually score the stoppage win.

Aside from Browne longing for any big fight in general, he couldn't help but wonder what could have been had he been in the ring with the defending titlist at that very moment. 

"Eric Molina put up a better showing than most expected and I take my hat off to him for that, but let's be honest, he was handpicked to make Wilder look good," Browne (22-0, 19KO) believes. "If I'd have hit Wilder with a hook like that one in the 3rd (round), he wouldn't have stayed on his feet. I think he'd probably still be asleep now.

 

"There's been a lot of hype around Deontay. People have said he's the saviour of heavyweight boxing, but that performance just made me sad. I really can't see what everyone sees in him. Every time I watch him, I spot flaws that I could exploit. He was lucky he was in with Molina because if he was facing me, he'd have been knocked cold."

Browne has spent time watching plenty of notable heavyweights while awaiting his own crack at a big fight. The unbeaten contender from Sydney, Australia last fought in November, having since spent his time fielding offers as he is due a mandatory title fight with Ruslan Chagaev.

Of course, he and his team are not averse to changing course if another opportunity were to surface. 

"While we don't want to take Lucas's focus off Chagaev, we'd take a fight with Wilder in a heartbeat," insists Matt Clark, Browne's co-manager.