How great was Lamon Brewster?

Lamon Brewster had one of the most exciting heavyweight title reigns.

From his title winning effort, getting off the floor to stop an all-time great in Wlad, to his epic, 12-round title loss to Liahkovich (which caused the damage to his eye for the rest of his career), and his compelling fights in between with Golota, Meehan and stopping Krasniqi in Germany on Max Schmeling's 100th birthday (when the Germans were all set to crown their Max Schmeling look-a-like champ). Side note: I loved Lamon's walkout music "Bad Company" when he strolled in to fight Krasniqi. It was like he was telling those ready to put the crown on Krasniqi, 'Not so fast.'

And, you can legitimately argue that his fight with Golota should've been for three of the four belts (if not for some awful scoring by judges in Golota's two fights before the Brewster match).

Lamon is a really nice guy in person, too. I was talking to Lamon Brewster before a fight when Gilberto Mendoza of the WBA asked him if he'd fight their champ, John Ruiz. And Lamon was totally on-board with that. Too bad that fight never happened.

Everyone always tries to "rank" fighters. Honestly, who cares where Lamon Brewster is ranked all-time. You could have him ranked down the list or up high, but he was fun to watch when he was on top. Those were fun nights.

Some people rank Floyd Mayweather really high on one list or another, but I have zero interest in rewatching his fights. Brewster fights are still fun, even when you've watched them before.

 

Golota's fights with Byrd and Ruiz, right. If he'd gotten the nod in both (which it seemed he did), he'd have brought the IBF and WBA belts into his fight with the WBO champ Brewster.

 

Golota definitely deserved the nod vs Ruiz didn't he floor him 2 times aswell ? The Byrd fight was close but I thought Golota edged it being the aggressor, probably one of Byrd's most exciting fights.

 

Yeah I think Brewster is probably on a similar level to a Douglas or a Ruiz. If truth be told he may be a little underrated. Guy had some good wins and was usually pretty exciting to watch. Sad how he ended up though

 

Not for me.

 

Brewster was a very good, but, not "Great" fighter.

No way does he come anywhere close to top 25. Probably not top 100.

 

Yeah he wasn’t great but he he was durable and had tons of heart. He had a great 4 fight run ending with the Liahkovich loss. He was more durable and showed more spirit than Douglas (outside of his Tyson fight) but wasn’t as skilled as Buster. He’s def better than Ruiz. Probably place him above Rahman and Mccall. All these guys are close though. Imo

 

I'm a fan. His fight with liakhovich is one of my fav hw fights and his loss to Etienne was a great one too.

 

There have been more than 100 Beltholders like Brewster over the years. And, there have been a number of fighters through the years that were better than Brewster despite not winning a belt. Don't get me wrong, I liked Brewster. I watched many of his fights as they happened live. Exciting fighter, and, seems like a nice guy. But, he was never the man in the division. And, that was during a weak Heavyweight era.

 

The issue with this line of reasoning is that I think Golota would've had to have beaten McCline and Toney, the mandatories, before fighting Brewster. It would be out of character for Golota to pull of two wins of that quality in a row.

 

One of my favourite heavyweights

 

I find him confusing at the time, and he remains so.

He could score an incredible win in one fight, then suffer a damaging loss in his next.

I will cite a short period of history as evidence.

In April of 2004 he stops Wald, who many now consider an all time great.

In September of 2024 he edges Kali Meehan, in a split decision.

In May of 2005 he demolishes Andrew Golota, who is coming off a loss to John Ruiz, that almost everybody on this forum thought was a win, in all but name.

The heavyweight division was in chaos at the time, and some on this forum, concluded that Wlad + Golota in close succession = best in teh world.

He was what he was, but he certainly had his moments.