By Allan Fox: #2 WBA Robin Krasniqi (43-3, 16 KOs) defeated Poland’s Dariusz Sek (21-2-1, 7 KOs) last Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Ballhaus Forum, Munich, Bayern, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 115-113, and 116-112.
More important than the win over the little known Sek, the 27-year-old Krasniqi will now likely be the next opponent for WBA World light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer (45-2, 33 KOs) in his next title defense on March 21st at the Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
Krasniqi has won his last four fights since losing by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last year in April against former WBO World light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in a one-sided fight. Krasniqi didn’t look really good in that fight, but he’s crawled his way back up the rankings with wins over Tomas Adamek, Emmanuel Danso, Oleksandr Cherviak and Dariusz Sek.
To be sure, none of those guys are what you’d call a good fighter, but the World Boxing Association thought enough of Krasniqi’s wins to give him a number #2 ranking with their organization, and he can now challenge for a world title.
It’s a good thing for Braehmer, because it gives him another chance for a winnable fight so that he can hold onto his WBA title for a little bit longer. Artur Beterbiev, #10 WBA, is coming on strong, and it’s only a matter of time before we see Braehmer’s title run end with him getting knocked out by Beterbiev. But in the meantime, you can expect Braehmer to continue to face guys like Krasniqi and hold onto his title.
Braehmer is considered by some boxing fans to be a paper champion at light heavyweight. It’s hard to take him seriously as champion at 175 when you see guys like Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev as the other light heavyweight title holders. Since Braehmer picked up his WBA title last year, he’s defended it three times against Enzo Maccarinelli, Roberto Feliciano Bolonti and Pawel Glazewski.
Krasniqi’s name will fit in nicely with those fighters, none of which are what you’d call a dangerous light heavyweight. It would be interesting to see how Braehmer would do against a good light heavyweight with power like Beterbiev, but that fight is likely going to need to wait until the WBA eventually ranks Beterbiev high enough to put heat on Braehmer to defend or vacate his WBA title.
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