(Picture: Team Sauerland) By Scott Gilfoid: WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (43-2, 32 KOs) will be playing it safe in his next title defense against #7 WBC, #14 IBF Roberto Bolonti (35-2, 24 KO’s) on June 7th at the Sport and Congress Center, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It looks like Braehmer, 35, will be getting another optional title defense with this fight after an easy optional title defense in his last fight against Enzo Maccarinelli last April in a 5th round stoppage. The Bolonti fight, believe it or not, is a step down from Braehmer’s easy title defense against Maccarinelli.
There had been talk about a rematch between Braehmer and Maccarinelli, but it looks like Braehmer’s promoter wanted to go with an easier option instead against Bolonti.
There’s really not much to say about the 35-year-old Bolonti other than he was easily beaten two years ago by Britain’s Tony Bellew in losing by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in November of 2012. Bolonti was too weak and small to give Bellew a fight, and it turned out to be a really dull one-sided fight with Bellew effortlessly beating Bolonti. I thought at the time that Bolonti’s title aspirations were finished, but Braehmer’s team saw him there at #14 IBF and went for the fight. Obviously, Bolonti is being picked because he doesn’t have much of a chance to beat Braehmer.
“This will be no cakewalk. Argentinians know how to fight – I have already fought four of them in the professional ranks,” Braehmer said. “He likes to put a lot of pressure on his opponents and I am a counter-puncher. His style will play into my hands – I will tame ‘La Bestia’!”
I didn’t see a lot of pressure from Bolonti in his loss to Bellew two years ago. Other than a head-butt early in the fight, Bolonti was very quiet in that fight, and mostly hanging on the outside getting nailed with shots.
Since his loss to Bellew, Bolonti has won his last five fights, albeit against largely weak opposition.
Braehmer needs to step it up and start facing some quality opposition because his last real test was back in 2008 when he was beaten by Hugo Herman Garay. Since then, Braehmer has fought pretty much nothing but fringe contenders and Euro level opponents.
Comments are closed.