Boxing: Lucas Browne bloodbath highlights risks for fighters

Lucas Browne lays on the canvas after getting knocked out by Dillian Whyte. Photo / Getty Images

The dangers all boxers, especially heavyweights, face in the ring was brought home yet again this morning in London when Australian Lucas Browne was knocked unconscious by Dillian Whyte.

That Browne was still fighting in the sixth round when he received a left hook to the temple and thudded to the canvas, where he remained motionless for a worrying amount of time, should be debated after this bloodbath at the O2 Arena.

Browne was immediately given oxygen, and, after a time, took the mask off and left the ring without assistance, but once he descended the stairs the mask went on again and he was put on cart to his dressing room, before presumably going to hospital. It was the first defeat of his professional career.

Browne, lined up to fight New Zealander Joseph Parker had the Anthony Joshua world heavyweight title unification fight not been made, was bleeding heavily from his nose and a gash above his left eye in the fifth round, the latter a problem for him since as early as the second.

He was taking a terrible amount of punishment from Whyte, who remains the mandatory contender for Deontay Wilder's WBC title after this victory.

Browne, 38, hasn't had a meaningful fight for two years and his inactivity showed. He was slow and predictable and completely outclassed after an even first round. Given the blood obscuring his vision and the punches he regularly received to the head and body, this fight probably should have been stopped at the end of the fifth.

Unfortunately for Browne, the knockout punch came at the end of a good combination from Whyte. Had home town hero missed with it, referee Ian Lewis may have stopped it anyway.

Whyte, an Englishman originally from the Caribbean and brought up in Brixton, south London, looked ordinary in his last fight in October, but here the man who goes by the nickname of The Bodysnatcher, was devastating.

The only blemish on his 24-fight professional record is a knockout defeat to Joshua three years ago, and the 29-year-old, fighting on an event televised in the United States, has worked his way back to become a very relevant part of the heavyweight equation.

Whyte wants Wilder next – preferably in June – but will have to wait until next weekend before getting more clarity as to his plans. His best chance of a fight against the American knockout artist known as the Bronze Bomber will be if Parker beats Joshua at the Principality Stadium next Sunday morning.

A Parker win would tie up Joshua in a re-match – probably in the United Kingdom in July.

A Joshua win would move him into a potential fight against Wilder to unite the division as unification fights take precedence over mandatory challenges.

For now, though, the boxing world should be pondering the state of Browne's health. A well-spoken and polite individual, a potential trans-Tasman fight between Browne and Parker won't happen now.

In fact, the man who won the WBA "regular" world heavyweight title two years ago before being stripped of it after failing a drugs test, may not come back from this one. He would be foolish not to seriously consider taking up something else for a living.

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