While the world focused its attention on Conor McGregor and Holly Holm in UFC 196, a part-time bouncer from the western suburbs of Sydney was slugging it out in Chechnya to become Australia's first ever heavyweight champion.
Lucas Browne, nicknamed Big Daddy, now holds the WBA heavyweight title belt along with a 24-0 record, and made Australian history with his win over the weekend.
After being knocked down by his highly-favoured opponent Ruslan Chagaev in this sixth round, the 6'5" Australian got to his feet and fought on. He had been outclassed for the majority of the fight, but continued to compete with the reigning heavyweight champion. In the tenth round, when Chagaev threw a left hook, Browne countered with a right hand to the chin. Chagaev went down, and the fight was stopped soon after.
Speaking on the against-all-odds victory, Browne's manager Matt Clarke told AAP “Rocky is a movie, but that was a real-life Rocky moment,”
“He was trailing in the fight, that was clearly obvious.
“We asked him to dig deep and pull something out and he did.”
Browne, who is managed by former boxer Ricky Hatton, will now move on to fight Puerto Rico's Fres Oquendo, who hasn't fought since 2014.
