Take a look back at the first fight between Klitschko and Brewster three years ago!
On Saturday night, IBF Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko will once again step into the ring with nemesis and Former WBO Heavyweight Champion Lamon Brewster. Back on April 10, 2004 in Las Vegas, Brewster scored the biggest win of his career, upseting Klitschko with a shocking fifth round stoppage.
Klitscho was in complete control of the match through the first three rounds, scoring a knockdown of Brewster in the third round and hurting him really bad in the process. However, Brewster would go on to recover at the start of the fourth round while Klistchko suddenly ran out of gas and lost steam. At that point, Brewster dropped and finished off a badly fatigued Klitschko to claim the vacate WBO title.
Since then, both fighters have taken opposite career paths. Klitschko came back from that defeat with a nice solid winning streak, including wins over Eliseo Castillo, Sam Peter, Chris Byrd, and Calvin Brock. Three of those opponents were previously unbeaten when Klitschko defeated them and Peter was even a solid favorite to win his fight with Klitschko. Klitschko won the IBF Championship from Byrd in Germany last year and has successfully defended that title two times, the first coming against Brock and the second being a dominant two round destruction over a mismatched, alphabet-soup mandatory challenger Ray Austin.
Brewster, on the other hand, defended the WBO belt a few times, with a disputed decision win over Kali Meehan and a come from behind knockout of Luan Krasniqi in Germany. Brewster would go on to lose his belt to Sergei Liakhovich by means of a convincing unanimous decision. Since that defeat over a year ago, Brewster has not stepped foot in a ring for prize fight. Going by those records, one would have to favor Klitschko going into the rematch. Klitschko is a revived and improved fighter under the tutalige of Hall of Fame Trainer Emmanuel Steward, while a defeat, age, and inactivity seem to have plagued Brewster in the last couple of years.
Klitschko should be able to outbox Brewster and stop him in the middle rounds, as long as he doesn't tire out like he did in their first fight. Yet, they still have yet to officially settle their score in their rematch this Saturday night. The result is not certain, which is why we have a fight upcoming this weekend.
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