To be honest, I took a break from watching boxing from about the late 90's to perhaps the mid 2000's. Occasionally, I would catch a fight here and there, with Sanders vs Klitschko being one of them. During this period however, I happened to miss out on a guy who seemed to have a fair amount of talent and who ironically isn't talked about much around here. A cousin of another well known heavyweight, Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster was born and raised in Indiana. He compiled an impressive amateur record consisting of 70-10, and faired well in a few tournaments, but didn't make the olympics. In 1996 he turned pro and was undefeated in his first 23 bouts, before dropping a decision to another unbeaten prospect named Clifford Etienne. From 2002 - 2006, Brewster would hold the WBO title and put together an impressive streak of wins, including a 5th round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko. Although, I've only seen limited footage of him, Brewster appears to be a fairly athletic fighter who posses a big punch and serviceable chin. His match with Kali Meehan was concerning at times though. At one point, Brewster was up against the ropes for nearly 90 seconds taking barages of huge shots. Still, I think that he seems to have been a decent fighter and quite possibly one that may be in danger of being underrated.
He made up for his lack of technical skills with a lot of hard work, heart and determination, something you dont see in a lot of the younger fighters, and what I believe brought him to a lot of victories. Its no secret he was getting his arse handed to him by Wlad before weathering the storm. At some point he lost the desire to prepare well, and be prepared to walk through a lot of pain to win a fight, and thats why he hasnt performed well in the last couple of years. Ironically I saw a lot of the same in Hasim Rahman (a bit better technically), earlier in his career, and what I believe was the cause of his inconsistency in his career as well.
His durability and punching power are basically as good as anyone's in history.... however, his skill (particularly on defence) is rather limited. A good contender who beat Wladimir in bizarre circumstances and had a decent run as titleholder. His fight with Krasniqi is very entertaining as are many others of his bouts... he is actually quite highly regarded by the German public, which is rare for an American boxer who doesn't have a German-based promoter and who destroyed German's favorite, Luan, in his own hometown. A very classy guy, too. I liked seeing him enter the ring with a Joe Louis t-shirt.
Decent but I wouldn't say underrated. Most people rate his punching power and toughness which is basically all he had.
When you're a top contender who mostly struggles with other top contenders in a weak era, you only gain so much recognition. But he was in some great fights (the Lyakhovich fight is one of the better HW "title" fights of the decade), came prepared and fought like hell so I think he'll always be remembered well, along with his gutsy, if strange, Wlad win. And don't forget that he was set back by an eye injury after the Lyakhovich fight which really seemed to take some of the starch out of him. Rematching Wlad coming back from that was not a good move professionally (presumably financially motivated).
I liked it when he ran over Golota. Add that to Wlad and Krasniqi and he has some quality ranked wins. Hes a big puncher, great chin, great determination and underrated skills, just not refined or fast enough to hang with quality boxers. I was a bit of fan. In terms of historical match ups the likes of Marciano/Dempsey/Frazier would have no easy time with him unless they quickly learn how to fight on the backfoot getting in and out
i dont think he had much talent to be honest with you.....he did pretty well with what he had but i was never impressed by him
I agree, he did put together a few good (and exciting) wins in a short span of time. Even then though, his limitations were exposed by Meehan and Lyakhovich. He might've been better for longer though, but the loss to Lyakhovich and the eye injury took some of the fire out of him (as it figured to). Still, his fights with Klitschko(the first one), Krasniqi, and Lyakhovich were among the most entertaining HW fights in recent years, and he readily took on dangerous fights as champion.
He wasnt anything special at all. Ive been watching him since he was coming up and had hardly any fights. He goes too long in spots waiting, and waiting, and waiting without doing anything. He is definately not underrated and will be forgotten, and rightly so. You cant fall asleep in the ring and not expect people to sleep on you when you are gone...
Brewster had great heart and great will, but his style demanded that he took a lot of punishment, and even those with the best wills have difficult keeping the style of a swarming attacker after a few tough fights. Brewster had very good power, and a very good chin. He had fast hands too. He was average on defense though. I think he accomplished enough to be called a top 100 heavyweight.