By Ian S Palmer
Former WBA Heavyweight Champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne of Australia meets Junior Fa of New Zealand in a 10-round bout on the undercard of the Kambosos vs Haney fight. The tilt this Saturday, June 4th bout can be seen live in America on ESPN while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports Action and Canadian fans can view it on TSN 1 and TSN 3. Fa last saw action in February, 2021 when he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Joseph Parker while Browne last fought in December when he stopped Faiga Opelu in the seventh round for the vacant WBA Oceania Heavyweight Title.
The 32-year-old Junior Fa climbs into the ring with a record of 19-1 with 10 Kos for a current knockout ratio of 50 per cent and has also been on the canvas himself as a pro. He’s boxed 94 rounds since making his pro debut in 2016 and also has good size at 6-feet-5-inches tall with a wingspan of 80.5 inches.
Fa is relatively unknown outside of New Zealand and Australia even though he’s fought half a dozen times in America. His toughest opponent by far has been former world champion Joseph Parker and he’s also faced Devin Vargas, Dominick Guinn, Newfel Outah, Craig Lewis and Daniel Tah. Since turning pro he’s also won the vacant New Zealand Heavyweight Title.
Before turning pro, he enjoyed a fine amateur career as he fought as a super heavyweight in the 2008 Oceania Olympic Qualifiers, won a gold medal at the 2009 New Zealand Amateur Championship, won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and won a silver medal at the 2012 Oceania Olympic Qualifier. In addition, Fa was named the male boxer of the year in 2019 at the New Zealand Boxing Awards and beat Parker twice as an amateur.
As for Browne, he’s now 43 years old. He stopped Ruslan Chagaev for the regular WBA Heavyweight Title back in March, 2016 after recovering from a sixth-round knockdown. He steps into the ring with a record of 30-3 with 26 big Ko’s. Browne turned pro back in 2009 and has 150 rounds under his belt since. He’s also one of the bigger heavyweights around at 6-feet-5-inches tall with a 77-inch reach. He’s the same height as Fa but has a 3.5-inch reach disadvantage.
Browne doesn’t have the strongest chin in the division as he’s been stopped in all three of his losses. He was brutally halted by Dillian Whyte in the sixth round in 2018, was stopped by Dave Allen in the third round a year later and was halted by Paul Gallen in just 115 seconds in April of last year. He’s such an exciting fighter though as he also possesses plenty of power with a current knockout ratio of 78.8 per cent.
Along the way, Browne’s beaten the likes of Chagaev, Chauncy Welliver, Julius Long, Eric Martel, Andriy Rudenko, Clarence Tillman, Travis Walker, Jason Gavern and James Toney. He’s also won several regional and minor belts such as the Universal Boxing Council Intercontinental Heavyweight Title as well as the WBF Asia Pacific, Australian, WBF World, Commonwealth Boxing Council, WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council, and WBA Inter-Continental Titles.
Prediction…
It’s hard to predict if Browne is going to win or lose when he steps into the ring but it’s a good bet that somebody’s going to get knocked out as just four of his 33 fights have gone the distance. Fa is 11 years younger and has decent power too, but he’ll have some ring rust to work through. This could go either way because of Browne’s chin and power and because of this I’ll go with the younger Junior Fa.
