Ruslan Chagaev vs. Lucas Browne on March 5 in Grozny

[Elroy1]

Solid and exciting HW bust up!!

Both these guys are exciting exhibitionists.

Chagaev is obviously the much better fighter and should win but Browne is larger and with a mean punch and very aggressive with it too, sporting a hard chin to get rough with Chag too.

Difficult to predict I picked, with a slight edge to Chagaev to be noted!!

[BostonGuy]

Per Fat Dan (ESPN):

Ruslan Chagaev will defend his secondary heavyweight title against mandatory challenger Lucas "Big Daddy" Browne on March 5 at Akhmat Arena in Grozny, Russia, organizers announced Friday.

Although Browne has been the mandatory challenger since February, Chagaev was due to face Fres Oquendo in a rematch on Oct. 17 in Kiel, Germany. However, Oquendo suffered a serious shoulder injury just two weeks before the fight, causing the rematch to be delayed indefinitely. That opened the door for Browne to get the next shot at Chagaev, who holds a second-tier belt to world champion Tyson Fury.

"I fully intend to become Australia's first-ever heavyweight world champion," Browne said. "Make no mistake: I'm going over to Grozny to knock Ruslan Chagaev out. I'm not interested in leaving the fight in the hands of the judges so I'm going to bring my two judges with me, my left hand and my right hand.

"I've already started the process of turning my body into a machine and I'm going to destroy whatever is in front of me. Traveling overseas to fight doesn't bother me in the slightest. I've done it many times in my career and at the end of the day it'll be just me and Chagaev in the ring."

Browne (23-0, 20 KOs), 36, who is promoted by former junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton, fought only once in 2015. The fight was a much harder than expected ninth-round knockout of journeyman Julius Long on Aug. 14. One reason for Browne's layoff was the waiting game as mandatory challenger.

"I can't thank Ricky Hatton and Hatton Promotions enough for getting me the opportunity. For one reason or another, this fight has been hard to make and I have to praise Ricky and his team for their hard work," Browne said.

Said Matt Clark, Browne's manager, "We've been waiting patiently for this fight to materialize and it's well worth the wait. It's going to be an incredible atmosphere in Grozny and we are looking forward to putting on a great show and making Australian boxing history."

Chagaev (34-2-1, 21 KOs), 37, a native of Uzbekistan living in Germany, will be defending his belt for the second time. He scored a controversial majority decision win against Oquendo to claim the vacant belt in July 2014 in Grozny and then was idle for a year until making a defense on July 11, knocking out Francesco Pianeta in the first round in Magdeburg, Germany.

[Rpgboxen]

The only way Lucas Browne wins this fight is by knockout he's not walking out of Grozny with the decision

[1hourRun]

Dropping this Christmas!

[Elroy1]

The only way Lucas Browne wins this fight is by knockout he's not walking out of Grozny with the decision

I agree with this.

Browne is not the type of fighter to be able to keep Chagaev off of him with a jab and be able to control the fight racking up points all night over his seasoned opponent.

But he might out-fight him though, using his might.

If Browne wants it, he has to go for it!

[HanzGruber]

Wba is ******ed. So fury is super, the winner of this is regular, and Ortiz is interim lol

[The Hammer]

Lucas Browne's twitter:

https://twitter.com/bigdaddybrowne1

He's a nice guy who doesn't mind exchanging tweets with his fans.

[Fetta]

Is Chagaev the fighter with AIDS?

[Weltschmerz]

Chag is gonna split the wig on that ugly bouncer.

[mlac]

browne is very very bad, he struggled with julias long and rudenko

It all depends how much chagaev has left in the tank.