Braehmer stripped of WBO title, Cleverly to face Kuziemski after Bellew fails to make weight

By Boxing News - 05/19/2011 - Comments

Image: Braehmer stripped of WBO title, Cleverly to face Kuziemski after Bellew fails to make weightBy Sean McDaniel: WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer (36-2, 29 KO’s) was stripped of his World Boxing Organization title on Thursday by the WBO for failing to fight WBO light heavyweight interim champion Nathan Cleverly (21-0, 10 KO’s) on Saturday and for having only defended the title once in the past two years. Cleverly, 24, was set to face Braehmer replacement Tony Bellew.

However, Bellew failed to make weight on Thursday’s weight check. Cleverly, now the full WBO champion, will be facing #11 ranked Aleksy Kuziemski (21-2, 5 KO’s) on Saturday at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, London, England. It’s not exactly the fight that boxing fans wanted to see, and it’s probably not making fans too excited about paying to see this fight on Sky.

It’s not that the 34-year-old Kuziemski isn’t a halfway decent fighter, but it’s not exactly interesting to note that Kuziemski has been stopped twice in his last six fights with one of them coming against Braehmer in 2009 and the other against Dmitry Sukhotsky last year. Cleverly likely has faced better opposition in his fights against Danny McIntosh, Nadjib Mohammedi and Karon Murat. Kuziemski-Cleverly is hardly an interesting main event fight. It’s somewhat interesting if you don’t mind seeing it on the undercard, but not really. Kuziemski has no power whatsoever and is very slow. He’s a fringe contender at best and stands no chance against Cleverly. I’d hate to have to pay to see this fight. It’s too bad they couldn’t find a live body for Cleverly to face instead of this guy. Hopefully this doesn’t start a trend where Cleverly faces no-name guys over and over again, and basically milk his title.



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