WBA Heavyweight Title Fight – Browne and Chagaev Odds and Weights

Browne and Chagaev Odds – The WBA World Heavyweight title bout is set, as both Ruslan Chagaev and Lucas Browne made it official by weighing in this afternoon in Grozny. Their twelve round bout for Chagaev’s WBA belt is Saturday, March 5th.

Chagaev, a 5’10” bulldog of a heavyweight, weighed in at 248.4 pounds. Browne stands 6’5″ and seeing the two men together plainly shows the seven inch difference.  On the scales however, both men are virtually the same as Browne checked in at an official 249.3 pounds.

The odds for the fight are competitive, as the sport books are giving a slight edge to the hometown fighter Chagaev. The odds immediately after the weigh-ins stood as follows:

Lucas Browne +180
Ruslan Chagaev -220

Browne and Chagaev Odds

Some may find value in the hard hitting, undefeated Australian, whose record stands at 23-0 with 20 KOs. He has been the mandatory challenger for the belt Chagaev won back in July of 2014. Chagaev won the belt on a narrow majority decision in a fight against Fres Oquendo that also happened in Grozny, and then he was away from the ring for a year. He returned to face Italy’s Francesco Pianeta in July of last year, avoiding Browne. Chagaev then signed to face Oquendo in a re-match. When that fell apart, Browne was still standing and waiting. The motivation is high for Browne not only on a personal level, but a win will see him become Australia’s first ever World Heavyweight champion. It is worthy to note that Browne has never come in under 250 lbs for a fight like he has this one, indicating he is in shape.

Check out this Boxing Channel video where analyst Ray Flores reviews the Chagaev vs Browne match-up, in-depth.

Chagaev however, is fighting on his home turf, and at 34-2-1 over his long career, he has only lost to elite fighters Alexander Povetkin and Wladimir Klitschko. He is a bit of an unknown in the west, as he has not fought west of Germany since 2003.

After Klitschko and Povetkin, there is a drop off in level of competition for Chagaev, and Browne is probably more dangerous than the likes of England’s Michael Sprott, Carl Davis of Costa Rica or Aussie Kali Meehan.

Though the match is in far off Grozny, Russia the winner will own a “regular” version of the WBA World Title, with Tyson Fury holding the “Super” World title and Cuba’s Luis Ortiz owning an “interim” version, putting them firmly on the world scene in the Heavyweight division.