24.03.06 – By Pat Lanier: Sergei “The White Wolf” Liakhovich (22-1, 14 KOs), although slow of hand and foot, and slightly thick around the midsection, he still has the ability to punch in combinations, something that is Kryptonite against Lamon Brewster, the WBO heavyweight champion, who is in seemingly danger of being out boxed every time he sets foot in the ring.. Liakhovich, 6’4” 240 lb, originally from Belarus, will have a three inch height advantage over Brewster, who at 6’1” 228 lb, will be once again facing a giant heavyweight. Brewster, by the way, is starting to make a living chopping giant heavyweights down to size. Since 2004, Brewster has defeated Wladimir Klitschko (6’6”), Kali Meehan (6’5”), Andrew Golota (6’4”), and Luan Krasniqi (6’3 ½), all in impressive fashion.
Clearly, size means nothing to Brewster, who has a way of evening the score of the fight with one punch – his powerful left hook. On one hand, Brewster tends to plod slowly after his opponents, winging wildly with his left hook.
However, on the other hand, it really doesn’t matter how bad he looks, as he has the potential of winning even late in the fight, with his knockout power. Brewster puts constant pressure on his opponents, causing them to use a lot of energy running, jabbing and covering up from his big shots. In Wladimir’s case, he seemed to run out of energy from Brewster’s constant forward motion, which seemed to use of Wlad’s energy like a battery going dead from overuse.
All the same, Liakhovich can take a heck of a punch and keep coming forward as well, making the fight turn into a grueling inside war of attrition. As far as punch out put goes, Liakhovich is a little more busier than Brewster, who tends to conserve his strength for big punches, like his left hook. If Liakhovich can put together enough short combinations, while using his excellent uppercut, he can possibly keep Brewster off balance long enough for him to pile on the points and win a decision. However, he’s going to have to stay on Brewster the entire time, since if he lets off and gets lazy for a second, Brewster has the very real potential of landing a shot that will spell the end for Liakhovich. I think this fight is up for grabs. If Liakhovich comes in motivated and in shape, willing to take some punishment to land his shots, I think he can pull an upset over Brewster, who I feel is vulnerable.
True, Brewster’s defeated some good heavyweights in the last couple of years. However, he tends to rely mainly on his knockout power to pull out wins from the jaws of defeat, meaning that he sort of limited and somewhat one-dimensional as a fighter. Against a good boxer, for example, Chris Byrd, Brewster would likely be embarrassed, losing badly by decision. The trick for Liakhovich is to try his best to imitate Byrd by putting combinations together, while trying to stay on the outside and avoid Brewster’s left hook, otherwise, he’ll likely have to be peeled off the canvas by the referee.