Lamon Brewster's
one round blitz over Andrew Golota to retain his W.B.O.
heavyweight title did a lot to hopefully spark a dull period
in heavyweight history. Since Lennox Lewis stepped down the
division has been in a state of turmoil and confusion. Sure,
the title was still split up when Lennox was around, but most
sane boxing fans knew who the real champ was.
Now the fans are left to wonder who the new "baddest man on
the planet" is. A lot of people seem to favor Vitali
Klitschko, the W.B.C. titleholder. Elusive Chris Byrd is the
I.B.F. claimant. John Ruiz is again the W.B.A.'s top dog, even
though he was whipped handily by James Toney. When Toney did
not pass his drug test, the W.B.A. did what they had to do,
re-instate Ruiz as champion. Golota drew with Byrd and lost a
very controversial verdict to John Ruiz. Then Brewster bombs
out the Golota in :58 seconds and guess what? There's a new
sheriff in town.
Former champion Hasim Rahman is meeting Monte Barrett for
the right to challenge the recovering Vitali. Rumor has it
that a Byrd-Ruiz unification could be in the works too. Let's
say Vitali fights and beats the winner of Rahman-Barrett. I
say Vitali should then entertain the thought of meeting
Brewster to avenge his younger brother's loss to Lamon. Then
let the winner of that bout face the winner of Byrd-Ruiz and
then finally, we will have a rightful successor to Lennox
Lewis and the linear championship. Lennox was the last linear
champion. He beat Shannon Briggs who beat George Foreman who
beat Michael Moorer who had defeated Evander Holyfield. No
heavyweight today has a clear right to the title.
On the horizon you have a couple of legitimate prospects in
Calvin Brock and Samuel Peter. You never know, there still may
be hope for Owen Beck and Dominick Guinn. James Toney must
still be considered a force in the division. Mike Tyson is
coming around one more time. Wladimir Klitschko is attempting
to rebuild his career and you've got a big strong kid named
Liakhovich that's making some noise. Fres Oquendo is
still a viable contender and "Dangerous" David Tua is on the
comeback trail. Jameel McCline is hanging on and needs to put
together a couple of wins before he is again considered for a
title shot.
Yes, Lamon sure stirred things up. He has injected new
blood into a rather boring division. It will be interesting to
see where his career goes from here.