23.05.05 – By Jim Amato: Lamon Brewster’s one round blitz over Andrew Golota to retain his W.B.O. heavyweight title did a lot to hopefully spark a dull period in heavyweight history. Since Lennox Lewis stepped down the division has been in a state of turmoil and confusion. Sure the title was still split up when Lennox was around but most sane boxing fans knew who the real champ was.
Now the fans are left to wonder who the new “baddest man on the planet” is. A lot of people seem to favor Vitali Klitschko, the W.B.C. titleholder. Elusive Chris Byrd is the I.B.F. claimant. John Ruiz is again the W.B.A.’s top dog even though he was whipped handily by James Toney. When Toney did not pass his drug test the W.B.A. did what they had to do, re-instate Ruiz as champion. Golota drew with Byrd and lost a very controversial verdict to John Ruiz. Then Brewster bombs out the Golota in :58 seconds and guess what ? There’s a new sheriff in town.
Former champion Hasim Rahman is meeting Monte Barrett for the right to challenge the recovering Vitali. Rumor has it that a Byrd-Ruiz unification could be in the works too.Let’s say Vitali fights and beats the winner of Rahman-Barrett. I say Vitali should then entertain the thought of meeting Brewster to avenge his younger brother’s loss to Lamon. Then let the winner of that bout face the winner of Byrd-Ruiz and then finally, we will have a rightful successor to Lennox Lewis and the linear championship. Lennox was the last linear champion. He beat Shannon Briggs who beat George Foreman who beat Michael Moorer who had defeated Evander Holyfield. No heavyweight today has a clear right to the title.
On the horizon you have a couple of legitimate prospects in Calvin Brock and Samuel Peter. You never know there still may be hope for Owen Beck and Dominick Guinn.
James Toney must still be considered a force in the division. Mike Tyson is coming around one more time. Wladimir Klitschko is attempting to rebuild his career and you’ve got a big strong kid named Liakhovich that’s making some noise.
Fres Oquendo is still a viable contender and “Dangerous” David Tua is on the comeback trail. Jameel McCline is hanging on and needs to put together a couple of wins before he is again considered for a title shot.
Yes, Lamon sure stirred things up. He has injected new blood into a rather boring division. It will be interesting to see where his career goes from here.