Lucas Browne: I want to knock Joseph Parker’s head off

Boxingnews24.com

By Eric Thomas: Former WBA heavyweight champion Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) is hoping to get a title shot against WBO champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) in March if the fight can be negotiated. Browne, 38, says he’s ready to knock Parker’s head off when the time comes for them to face each other.

Browne and his management still need to wait and see if Parker will be facing IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in March in the UK. Parker’s promoter David Higgins is looking to make the Joshua fight if they can get a respectable split of the revenue for the fight. Judging by Higgins’ recent comments about the Joshua-Parker negotiations, it doesn’t sound promising. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says a good starting point for the Parker fight is an 80-20 split.

“He’s a gentleman of a bloke, I love him, but at the same time I want to knock his head off and I want the title,” said Browne about the 25-year-old Parker on his social media site.

Browne recently came off of a 15-month layoff to defeat journeyman Matthew Greet by a 2nd round knockout on June 2.

Parker would be making a voluntary defense of his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title if he chooses to face Browne. The Australian heavyweight isn’t rated in the top 15 by the WBO at this moment.

“I’m a guy who likes to knock people out – I don’t like to leave it up to the judges,”Browne said to the nzHerald.co.nz. “I’ll put the pressure on by going to the body and take him into the later rounds – nine, 10, 11 – that’s when I tend to be most dangerous.”

There’s a very good chance that Parker will be fighting Joshua next. That’s a match-up that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn really wants, especially given that he’s made it known that he wants his fighter to unify the division in 2018. That creates pressure on Hearn to try and make the Parker fight first thing in the year.

It’s good news that Browne will be looking to stand and trade with Parker, because his last opponent Hughie Fury ran from him for 12 rounds last September. Parker won the fight by a 12 round majority decision, but it was a very ugly to watch fight. Hughie did not want to fight, and it looked like his game was just to go the distance and hope that 2 of the 3 judges would score the fight in his favor. It didn’t work out that way though. 2 of the judges gave it to Parker by the wide scores of 118-110 and 118-110. Hughie and his team were furious after the fight, thinking they’d been robbed. In Parker’s other recent defense of his WBO title, he defeated 6’7” Razvan Cojanu by a 12 round unanimous decision last May. Cojanu spoiled for 12 rounds, and did very little real fighting.