Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne of Australia will lock horns with Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan, gunning for the World Boxing Association (WBA) world heavyweight title on March 5, 2016. The event will be held at the Akhmat Arena in Grozny, Russia.

Browne will aim to better the records shown by Bill Squires, Joe Bugner, Alex Leapai, Bill Lang and Kali Meehan by becoming the first Australian heavyweight boxer to win one of the sport’s most prestigious titles.

Current champion Chagaev (34-2-1, 21 KOs) was due to face Fres Oquendo for a rematch in Kiel, Germany. However, a serious shoulder injury just two weeks away from the bout forced the Puerto Rico-born American to pull out indefinitely. This opened up the opportunity for Browne, who will want to take away the glory from Chagaev, currently holding the second-tier belt to the 'unified' world championship held by Tyson Fury.

The 265-pound tank, Browne is currently unbeaten in 23 boxing matches with 20 knockout victories. Former world champion Jeff Fenech has recently claimed that Browne hits harder than Mike Tyson. However, the once steel cage fighter will still remain an underdog when he takes on the champion, who will fight as the heavy favourite entering the bout.

British great Ricky Hatton currently promotes Browne. Hatton is famous for ending the career of world champion Kostya Tszyu and believes that Browne will be able to do a similar job on Chagaev.

“Make no mistake, I’m going over to Grozny to knock Ruslan Chagaev out," Brown said, via the Herald Sun.

Browne has fought just once in 2015 and the fight with Chagaev is expected to be harder than the one against Julius Long, who was knocked out by the Uzbek in the ninth round.

This will be the second title defence for Chagaev, who currently lives in Germany. The Uzbek went on to win the vacant belt by beating Oquendo, via a controversial fight in 2014. He then defended his title after one year by knocking out Francesco Pianeta in the first round in Magdeburg, Germany on July 11, 2015.

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