by James Slater: 33-year-old Brian “The Beast” Minto has been making a habit of scoring 1st round knockouts just lately. He did it again last night in his home-town of Butler, Pennsylvania, as he despatched 37-year-old one-time prospect “Big” John Poore in 2 minutes and 33 seconds. Minto sent the now 20-3(18) down three times before the slaughter was over with. This now makes four 1st round stoppages in a row for Minto – albeit against less than stellar opposition..
Nevertheless, “The Beast,” who improved to 31-2(20), is a crowd-pleasing, exciting fighter. Now seriously in need of a big fight, the 33-year-old has bounced back well from his close points defeat at the hands of Luan Krasniqi in March of last year. A genuine puncher, Minto would make a great opponent for the likes of Chris Arreola, Eddie Chambers, Kevin Johnson or maybe even David Haye. It’s now time we found out if Minto is or is not going to have any big time future in the heavyweight division. A fight with either of the four guys I’ve just listed would tell us a quite a bit about “The Beast’s” chances.
Minto’s other career loss, a split decision on points to Tony Tubbs way back in 2004, can be all but forgotten about. By all accounts the verdict was a poor one, and Minto did all the work and Tubbs doing all the spoiling. No, the only “real” loss on Minto’s record is the points defeat to Krasniqi. Worryingly, however, Minto was decked in the twelfth and final round against the not too hard punching German (only 14 KO’s from his 30 wins). Does this mean there is the possibility Minto has a suspect chin? The knockdown did come late in the fight, and therefore fatigue may have been largely responsible. In any case, Minto got right back up and finished the fight.
But the reliability of his chin is just one of the factors fans are questioning with regards to Minto’s worth as a top class heavyweight. 1st round destructions of guys like John Poore, while pleasing to Brian’s local fans, are doing the fighter no real good at all. At age 33 this is surely the year for “The Beast” to show us all how savage he can be against the division’s elite.
Hopefully, in his very next bout, the big-punching Minto will climb through the ropes to face an opponent we all know is for real.