Fight conditional on Bruwer brain scan
SOUTH African light-heavyweight champion Johnny ‘‘ The Hurricane” Muller has promised to accommodate Daniel ‘‘Billy The Kid” Bruwer any time before Christmas.
But that shoot-out will only happen if Bruwer agrees to undergo a brain scan to determine if he is still fit to fight.
‘‘That is the condition if he really wants the fight to happen because I don’t want to be held for manslaughter,” said the 22-yearold Muller.
Muller felt he had to finally respond to the challenger’s public taunts for a showdown to determine the real owner of a belt that Bruwer lost in the boardroom a few years ago.
‘‘That man has taken one too many punches, so I want the boxing authorities to make sure that he is fine.”
Bruwer, SA’s current cruiserweight champion, called Muller for a verbal shoot-out before he won the World Boxing Federation International cruiserweight belt against Algerian Sofiane Sebihi in Pretoria last weekend. Bruwer made it clear that cruiserweights were heavy for him.
Muller’s trainer, Harold Volbrecht, endorsed his boxer’s sentiments.
‘‘Daniel has got to do the brain scan. If all is well, then the fight can happen even before Christmas. That will be an easy payday for Johnny. I will never say no to it,” said Volbrecht, who helped Muller regain the belt from Tshepang Mohale a few weeks back.
Mohale dethroned Muller via a three-round stoppage in their first fight in 2011, but Muller turned the tables when he stopped his rival in the 11th round recently.
Bruwer has a tendency to take every punch thrown at him without wincing and took heavy punishment from Fikile Nyalunga and Sbihi.
But trainer Nick Durandt said even if Muller and Volbrecht felt his charge has taken one too many punches, they should accept the challenge. ‘‘They must suggest a date to their promoter (Rodney Berman) and then send through a contract. We will sign with our eyes closed,” Durandt said.
This match-up has the potential to be an explosive fight which might bring back memories of a heavyweight showdown between Pierre Coetzer and Johnny du Plooy at Sun City Superbowl on August 4 1990.