Meehan Plans to Checkmate Brewster
 Interview by Anthony Cocks, Site Editor (August 26, 2004)
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Kali ‘Checkmate’ Meehan
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When Kali ‘Checkmate’ Meehan steps into the ring at the Mandalay Bay on September 4th to challenge WBO heavyweight champion Lamon ‘Relentless’ Brewster, it will be the realization of a dream that began many years ago for the 34-year-old New Zealand-born Australian.
“Growing up in New Zealand, it was always a big dream to go and fight in America,” Meehan, 29-1 (23), told Doghouse Boxing from his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. “That was like THE biggest thing. But even to go fight in Australia was a big thing, you know? But I got to Australia and I got to the top of that scene and now to come over here and fight in America for a world title, it's like a dream come true.”
The opportunity has been a long time coming for Meehan, who quit the sport two years ago after becoming frustrated by what he felt was poor management. During his layoff he stayed in shape by playing in the front row for rugby team Wyong on the New South Wales Central Coast."
The thing was I wasn't going anywhere with my boxing," explained Meehan. "I had some bad management experiences and it was like a whole lot of people offering me nothing back in Australia. I just said well, I don't want no part of all this, and I just walked away from it. I played rugby and kept working trying to support my family and it wasn't until I got my new manager Ted Allen and my trainer Mark Janssen that there was a fresh start.
Everyone else said 'come and train with me, blah, blah, blah,' but he said 'I'd love to train you, and I believe you can go a long way. But I won't even offer you this until I can set you up, so basically you won't have to work so you can train fulltime. Otherwise I believe it's a waste of time.'
"Then he got me with a good friend of his who is now my manager, Ted Allen. And Ted said to me 'the main thing I have to do as manager is get you signed with a good promoter'. So it was a fresh start for me. The layoff didn't hurt me, it gave me a whole new beginning. Then I came over here and first of all I sparred with John Ruiz for his fight with Rahman. That's when his trainer Norman Stone put in a good word for me to Don King. Then I came over for three weeks in Don King's camp and sparred everyone there, then I went to spar Lamon Brewster for seven weeks, so that was ten weeks all up. Then I got offered this fight. It's very refreshing for me. It's a new start and I'm very excited."
Meehan's first fight back was against journeyman Damon Reed on the untelevised portion of the undercard of Brewster's title winning fight against Wladimir Klitschko in April of this year. As Brewster's chief sparring partner for that fight, Meehan took personal satisfaction in watching the 4-1 underdog topple HBO's heavily-hyped heavyweight heir apparent.
"I was his main sparring partner for that fight," he said. "We sparred a lot of hard rounds. I mean Brewster is such a good man, too. He came to me after the fight – or before the fight I think – and he said thank-you very much, if it wasn't for you… That meant a lot to me, you know. Especially when he won the world title and to know that he was so grateful for my sparring and that I was a big part of it, it meant a lot to me. It's like something that I can put on my resume."
All those pleasantries will go out the window however when Meehan comes face to face with 31-year-old Brewster, 30-2 (27), as the main event of the Showtime televised card.
"He knows I'm there to win as well as I know he's there to win," said Meehan, who expects to come in to the fight weighing somewhere in the low 240's.
When Brewster challenged Wladimir Klitschko for his WBO title back in April, very few people gave him a chance of pulling off the upset. Yet in an ironic role reversal Meehan finds himself in almost exactly the same position as Brewster did five months ago. And while Meehan has nothing but respect for his former sparring partner, he believes he know enough about Brewster's strengths and weaknesses to cause a boilover.
"He's very committed and dedicated, got a big heart," said the 6'5" boxer-puncher. "He's a very strong man. [The fight will be] a lot of what most people will expect, me trying to use my reach and him trying to get in, that sort of thing.
I don’t want to say too much but you've always got to have a gameplan to go to in every fight. Especially with this fight, the biggest fight of my life. But yeah, I've been working on things.
There are sort of things there that I learnt about from sparring and watching some of his fights that I believe that I can capitalize on." Despite 21 of his 23 knockouts occurring within the first six rounds, Meehan has earned a reputation as a slow starter. Against a heavy-handed brawler like Brewster this would be nothing short of suicide, but the affable Aussie says he plans on starting fast and taking the fight to the Los Angeles-based fighter.
"Yeah, for sure. A lot of my earlier fights I was never one hundred percent fit because I was working two jobs and I'd get a fight on a week or two's notice, you know? And I was always worried about getting tired, so I was just trying to box along and when an opening came I'd just try and jump on it, you know? But this fight here I feel very, very fit and very strong. That's one thing I learnt from my loss to Danny Williams is that I have to fight more aggressively," he said.
Ah, the Danny Williams fight. The lone blemish on Meehan's otherwise immaculate record. In that fight recent Tyson conqueror Williams caught Meehan cold to record a stoppage thirty-two seconds into the first round. But if John Ruiz has taught us anything, it's that getting cold-cocked in the opening seconds of a round doesn't necessarily mean the ruin of your career.
And while Meehan is expecting Brewster to adopt similar tactics, he also realizes that anything can happen in the ring.
"Of course," he agreed. "I think he has to. To me, it would be crazy of him if he didn't. That's the thing about boxing, you can never tell what your opponent is going to do until you get in there. Anything can happen in the squared circle."
One thing that stands out from both of these fighters' records is their lack of rounds. Brewster has only been past the sixth round five times, losing on two of those occasions, while Meehan has been past the sixth only three times. With neither fighter having been extended past the tenth round, stamina may well prove to be the deciding factor in this fight.
"Well, I know that I can do twelve rounds or I can do twenty rounds," said Meehan. "That's just the way I look at it. I don't know if it will benefit me more than him, but I know that it won't phase, you know what I'm saying?
And while the enormity of the occasion would overwhelm many fighters, Meehan takes a relaxed view of proceedings.
"To me, personally, the main thing I have to focus on is not letting that phase me at all," he said. "It's such a big occasion and I don't want the occasion to overwhelm me, but just look at it like I'm walking in to the ring and hopping in the ring and do my best and a bit more, you know what I mean?
"So I'm not going to let a world title fight get to me, or [whether] people like me or they don't. I'm going to stick to my gameplan and go in there and hopefully at the end of the fight… I'll have some people who like my boxing."
Meehan is under no illusion as to how he is regarded by the majority of the media, but he takes it all in his stride and simply hopes to put on an entertaining show for the fans.
"I know a lot of people are saying 'who is this guy, why is he fighting?' and, you know, I expect that," acknowledged Meehan. "I expect it because to me America is like, how do you say it, it's like the top boxing in the world you know? And to come over here you have to earn the fans' respect. To get fans over here you have to earn it by fighting good, so that's what I'm trying to do… to make it here I know that it is something very important and not something that can be done easily. I can't just come over here and expect to have a fan base or the people's respect or anything like that, but I'm going to try and get that on the night of the 4th of September.
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