Lamon Brewster: “I’m back!”
 INTERVIEW By Benny Henderson Jr (June 11, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © K2 Promotions)
Coming up July 7th from Cologne, Germany, to be televised live on HBO 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT, the fight fans will witness a heavyweight match-up that will most certainly entertain the masses when hard hitting heavyweight Lamon Brewster 33-3 (29) makes his return to the ring to take on the IBF title holder Wladimir Klitschko 48-3 (43) in an anticipated rematch.
The two ring warriors met in the square three years ago in what was a humdinger of a throw down. Brewster picked
himself up off the canvas in round four to take the thrilling win in the fifth round taking hold of the vacant WBO strap in the process.
Brewster made three successful defenses of his heavyweight strap until dropping his title April of 2006 in a fight of the year candidate against Sergie Liakhovich, a fight where Brewster suffered a detached retina.
Now after fully recovering from eye surgery the relentless one returns to the ring to once again take on the towering Ukrainian in hopes of finding championship status once more.
Read on in this exclusive interview to see what Brewster had to say on his upcoming rematch against Klitschko as well as his thoughts on the heavyweight division, enjoy.
Benny Henderson Jr.: Just give the readers your thoughts on your upcoming rematch against Wladimir Klitschko.
Lamon Brewster: It is something that I think boxing needs to keep the torch lit, put together the best fights possible, especially in the heavyweight division where you have a lot of lack luster fights. This promises to be on my behalf a great fight.
BH: You are coming off a loss and over a year lay off, why Klitschko, why not jump in there with a warm up to knock off a bit of ring rust?
LB: I don’t think there is such a thing as knocking the rust off; I think you just have to have confidence when you fight somebody that you know you can beat. If you are not confident enough that you can beat anybody then you don’t need to be in the ring. I feel that I do not need a tune up, a tune up is for people who do not have confidence, and I have confidence. So that is why I feel that there is no need to take a fight against a lesser caliber person.
BH: Now to the eye injury you suffered in your last bout, with your retina already being detached, are there any worries about suffering it again and possibly ending your career?
LB: Nah man, my retina is very tight it is very strong, nothing is 100% sure but it is very strong. I am not worried about it; I think that I am ok. If I do everything right there will be no need to worry about it.
BH: You defeated Klitschko nearly three years ago in what I call a wholehearted effort on your part, you took a lot of punishment for the first few rounds until getting the W in the fifth. How are you going to approach this fight, what will we see differently from Lamon Brewster in this go around?
LB: I won’t tell, I just want you to check it out for yourself July 7th, it promises to be a fight between the two top heavyweights in our division. I think this fight is not necessarily for a title but, it is for the title of the undisputed regardless of what they say. I believe that nobody in the heavyweight division can give me the challenge that Klitschko can potentially give me. I think we are the best out there so why not do it? I was off for a year the last time we fought, everybody keeps talking about how much of a beating or what not I took in the first fight, I wish they would answer me this: why did he look worse after the fight then I did? My skin is no tougher than his.
BH: What are your thoughts on Klitschko and his progression since the first meeting between you two?
LB: Well it is hard for me to say because he has not fought people on my level. I think he has gotten his confidence back, the people he has fought, and they are not like me. He has not fought anybody with my power or my speed, or my skill level, so it is hard for me to say. His progression towards me I cannot say where he is at, you are not even going to know. A lot of people say he has gotten better, well whom has he fought? What makes him better? Because he fought guys that he knew he could beat?
BH: Being brutally honest, what are your thoughts on the heavyweight division, the WBO title you once held has changed hands twice in a little over a year now, all the titleholders are European and there is no clear-cut champion, what do we need and how do we get it?
LB: Well for one I want to say I do not think there is such a thing as a European champion, whoever has the title right now is the one who God wanted them to have it. They are the ones who worked hard to get it, so they have it. That is the way life is sometimes. I think the heavyweight division is watered down because I think the American heavyweights are lazy, you can look at their body and tell that they are lazy and look at their diets and tell that they are lazy, just by the way that they look with the fat hanging out and huffing and puffing in the gym and in the fights, there is no excuse for that. I think that the European fighters are beating American fighters in the heavyweight division because they are training harder, they want it more. And that is why. I think America still has the better fighters but you have to train, you have to have conditioning to go with those skills. I think they stopped watching tapes of the old fighters; the old trainers are starting to die out so yeah man boxing is definitely becoming watered down, especially in the heavyweight division.
BH: Are you the man to save the heavyweight division?
LB: You’ll find out July 7th, you guys can be the judge of that.
BH: If you could say anything to your opponent what would it be?
LB: Thank you for the opportunity.
BH: Anything you want to add or say in closing?
LB: First I would like to apologize for losing my title April 1st of last year, I would like to let everybody know that I am back and that I am happy, thank you to everybody that prayed for me, who was concerned about me. I am back and I am bringing the title back to the United States, but more so that then US, the world. I am once again going to be the world champion. I would like to thank everybody who supported me and who believed in me, and I would like to thank everybody that does not believe in me, because that just gives me more fuel for the fire.
I would like to thank Lamon for taking the time out to speak to Doghouse Boxing, for more information on Brewster please check out www.lamonbrewster.com.
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