Brewster vs Krasniqi Pre-Fight Analysis

By Michael Amakor

On September 28th 2005, Luan Krasniqi challenges Lamon Brewster for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Heavyweight title across the pond at the Color Line Arena, Hamburg in far away Germany.

Brewster is a former WBO NABO and WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Champion, who exploded into boxings center stage after he defeated china-chinned former champion Wladimir Klitchko for the vacant WBO belt. That fight had some great moments as he survived the initial onslaught of the towering Ukrainian before eventually knocking him down in the fifth round, in an upset that shook up the boxing world.

In his first title defense, he scored a unanimous decision win over Kali Meehan in 2004 in a fight many thought he had lost, but he rebounded from that fight to give us the best performance of his career so far when he unleashed less than twenty wild punches to knock out tough and foul Andrew Golota three times, en-route to scoring a TKO at the 0.53 mark of the very first round, that fight again aroused the boxing world and ignited interest in his career.

However, the hype of those sensational victories does not quite suppress the fact that he has mostly faced B-level competition from the likes of Tommy Martin and Nate Jones in his other title winning efforts, before recently stepping up in competition, you have to wonder about him when you find out that he also lost to Charles Shufford, and glass jawed Clifford Etienne earlier on in his career, but his record stands at a respectable (32- 2, 28KO’S) which tells you that he is a dangerous slugger who packs a punch as both Wladimir and Golota can testify.

His professional record is slightly better than Krasniqi’s, who earned this shot by knocking out NABA Heavyweight Champion Lance Whitaker in the sixth round to become Brewster’s mandatory challenger. A review of his record shows victories over vaguely recognizable fighters like Sanil Sam Samil, Julius Francis and fighting to a draw with Timo Hoffman (at least stateside). He is virtually unknown in the US since most of his campaigns have occured across the pond in Europe. But then the picture gets brighter because he became the European Heavyweight Champion, who not only sparred with retired champion Lennox Lewis in the past, but was also an Olympic bronze medalist, his record now stands at ( 28-1-1 ,14KO’S).

However, everything about this bout is unusually tipped in Krasniqi’s favor, one is that not only is the bout scheduled on the 100th birthday of popular late heavyweight champion Max Schemeling, Brewster is also defending his crown in Germany, a turf, it is very important to note that American fighters dread competing in for fear of coming in at the wrong end of a politically induced judging decision. The crowd will definitely be routing for Krasniqi to win, and their ovation alone would be enough to pump up the extra adrenaline he needs to land a hellecious right cross that could have an awed and intimidated Brewster flat on his back trying to figure out how to sing the German national anthem.

Some experts give Krasniqi better than a punchers chance of dethroning Lamon Brewster for the crown especially since he claims to have promised Schmeling that he would bring back the heavyweight title to Germany. In his last fight against Whitaker he showed true ring generalship by comprehensively out-boxing him showing that he can handle bigger taller men. He better keep a tight defense as Brewster is brimming with the confidence of a man who will begin flailing away at him from the opening bell with a combination of wild hooks and right crosses looking for the knockout.

A win for Krasniqi would signal the takeover of the heavyweight division by fighters of European vintage as he could join Vitali Klitchko atop the heavyweight champion mountain, which may be for the better as the current crew of American champions have been less than spectacular and have actually contributed to diminishing interest in the heavyweight division. A win by Krasniqi will set him up to face Wladimir Klitchko in a super fight that could be held in Germany.

There must be a huge payday in it for Brewster to accept this challenge despite his comments that a champion should take risks. He may have had the option of defending his strap at home, but this fight would garner more interests there than in the US because Germans love their boxing just as well as Americans. A win for Brewster will improve his bargaining position for a super fight against John Ruiz or the winner of the Byrd vs Williamson showdown, but at the end of the day they only meaningful fight out there for him would be a rematch against comeback kid Wladimir Klitchko to settle their score. I personally hope the impending battle against Klitchko does not waver his resolve to get past Krasniqi because that path is filled with dollar signs.

Enough said may the best man win



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