BoxRec

Aggrieved former world heavyweight champion Lucas Browne will return to action on June 2 at Club Punchbowl in Sydney, New South Wales – WBN can confirm.

Browne, 38, has cut a frustrated figure since being stripped of his title on the back of a controversial drug test failure, which ultimately resulted in the Australian being reinstated by the World Boxing Association.

Months later, and as ‘Big Daddy’ was about to embark on a redemption attempt, a World Boxing Council Clean Boxing Program procedure flagged up the banned substance ostarine and Browne was seemingly back to square one.

Always fiercely protesting his innocence, Browne has had some bad medicine to swallow since the whole debacle began in the spring of 2016 but is finally ready to fight following an exasperating fifteen-month absence.

Manager Matt Clark says the big puncher cannot wait to begin the journey to prove his doubters wrong.

“Lucas is back on June 2 and it's at Club Punchbowl in Sydney NSW. It'll be great to see Lucas back in there after being out of action for so long,” Clark exclusively told World Boxing News.

“He's is keen to shake off the cobwebs and get back to doing what he does best, and that’s putting people to sleep!

“I want to thank promoter Paul Nasari for having him on and also Lucas' promoters at Hatton Promotions.

“It'll be his first fight in Sydney in many years. He's looking forward to it,” he added.

Browne himself, who has been vocal about his desire to get back between the ropes for some time now, didn’t pull any punches with his short statement to WBN.

“I'm back, I'm pissed off and I'm bashing everyone. I’m ready to take back what's mine!” said Browne.

An opponent will be revealed shortly.

I like Lucas but he is really third division

Pissed off that he got caught doping.

Grant wrote:I like Lucas but he is really third division

I'm not sure about that I'd quite like to see him against most fighters in the top 20. I always fancied watching a fight between Browne and Parker to decide the best heavyweight in the Antipodes, but Parker moved beyond that with his WBO title win. It still interests me though.

A fight against Stiverne would be interesting and he and Breazeale or Whyte would be a war. Even if he were as poor as you're suggesting, he can still feature in some good fights. I'm very glad he's back.

Browne is ok. Tough and can whack but technically he's poor. The top guys would make easy work of him. Even Wilder, who isn't the best technically, would starch him. He was getting a lesson from a fat, past it Chagaev before finding a big shot.

Maybe but Wilder can be impetuous even reckless, and possibly as vulnerable to that desperation shot as chagaev was, even though he would rightly be massively favoured to win.

Browne makes good fights but he is going to need extremely good luck to land a significant fight in the near future and at his age he likely doesn't have much of a future left in this sport.

Lucas Browne is so pissed off, you could say he has hot piss.

I would be pissed off if I were Lucas Brown too. I would be seeing red. But then I would forget it. In Boxing when you're mistreated by corrupt organizations like VADA and the WBC there's nothing much you can do about it. It's like an innocent man sitting in prison for 75 years and then dying there. All his appeals ran out and the only other being who knows he's innocent is God. He could be bitter and pissed off all his life, or he could make the best life he possibly could out of his miserable situation.

Anthony Joshua has already said, "I don't give a fukking shiitt about any gawd damned belts." ... The only way these corrupt, money grubbing orgs are going to be beaten is when boxers and promoters start ignoring them completely.. There's at least 8 of them that have come and gone -- and the only reason they exist is to leech off Boxing with their sanctioning fees.. For his last Middleweight Title Fight Cotto refused to pay the WBC's exorbitant 300,000 dollar fee.. He knew he was going to be stripped and he knew nobody would care..

Cotto knew what fans cared about was whether he won or lost ... and didn't GAF about whether the WBC sanctioned the fight or not.. For his last fight Canelo refused to pay the WBC a ridiculous sanctioning fee for a manufactured title and belt.. He knew the fans didn't give a crap about any phony title.. I think more top boxers need to start ignoring the orgs and their sanctioning fees.. Dry up their money and they'll shrivel up and blow away..

I hope to see him vs Ortiz

Agreed Kalan I've been saying that to anyone who'll listen (not many to be fair ) since at least the inception of the W.A.A. (who? ... the World Athletic Association) and maybe even before that.

Perhaps we as fans are culpable too and go some way to propagating their legitimacy just by talking about them and about boxers holding/ fighting for, which belts and who appears in each scummy organisation's rankings. It's very hard to avoid it though.

Browne pulled off a Shannon Briggs homerun win over Chagaev who was clearly fat & out of shape. Chagaev was kicking his ass & simply run out of gas. Browne went life & death with Andriy Rudenko. Browne is going to get exposed when he steps up again.

Browne vs. Povetkin is what I want to see.

Povetkin is one of the few fighters in the top 20 I wouldn't be so keen on Browne facing because I don't see it as competitive. PED enhanced or not, I believe Povetkin to be a lot more skillful than he is given credit for. He has the technique to make it very one sided.

Give me Browne against Briggs now that would be fun while it lasted with Briggs looking to overwhelm him early before Browne could outlast him.