Heavyweights in the Land of “Bigger is Better”

The real boxing fan loves the lighter weights, where warriors go to war, where technique and skill and quickness and heart are heavier than the heaviest heavyweights. But the general public likes watching the train wreck that is the heavyweight division. There is just something about somebody being the biggest and baddest. Everyone gathers, waiting for a spectacular knockout. Saturday night required little wait.

Andrew Golota looked as if he were trying to win a Left Hook Eating Contest. And that is the only thing he won Saturday night in Chicago.

Lamon Brewster etched his name on the heavyweight map. Time will tell if that name will be soon smudged away, like the names of so many pretenders, but he did look like the real deal Saturday night … making Golota look slow, plodding and retirement material.

The bell rang and Brewster used that big left to ring another bell for Golota, right off the bat. He was so busy, a strong whirlwind, a right to the body, a right to the head, another left. He stepped back and then whoosh another big left to the body. Golota was already in Backpedal City.

Then came the first of a trio of textbook left hooks.

BOOM. Down goes Golota. And they had only been at this fighting business for 10 seconds. Twenty seconds later, the second textbook left hook deposited Golota through the ropes. They had been at it 30 seconds. Another left, a right to the body, some more busy work and then the third text book left hook. Golota was toast, tumbling to the canvas 50 seconds into the fight.

It was all over in 53 seconds. But, think about it. This fight was a lot shorter than that. The referee spent almost half that time getting Brewster to a neutral corner and counting over a dazed Golota.

Perhaps the best exchange of the night came between announcer Jim Lampley and Roy Jones Jr.

“This is the Golota who froze against Lennox Lewis,” Lampley said.

Jones Jr. jumped in. “No, it’s not. No, it’s not,” he said. “This is the Golota who just got the hell knocked out of him.”

“That’s a good point,” Lampley said.

“He didn’t freeze,” added Jones. “He got iced.”

That he did.

Brewster was impressive on this night, against this fighter. Time will tell if he can take what he did on a May Saturday night in Chicago and build on it. He did, though, put himself on the map, and he put himself in the minds of heavyweight fight fans, and he put himself in position to obtain something special.

As for his part in this wreck, Golota said after the fight, “I understand why they had to stop the fight, but I wanted to continue. I cannot believe this happens to me every decade (Lennox Lewis). Maybe it’s time for me to think about leaving boxing.”

Probably a good thought.

As for Brewster, there is a bright future out there. He is with a vastly talented (and probably under the radar) trainer in Jessie Reid now. He looks like the kind of power punching machine Americans love to watch. He has set himself up for some more good fights, some more big paydays.

And one thing is for sure. There will be plenty of people who will pay the ticket prices, plop their bottoms in the seats and wait for the train wreck.

It is, after all, what we love.