(Photo credit: Sebastian Heger) By Scott Gilfoid: While top light heavyweights like Adonis Stevenson, Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal get a ton of notoriety in the boxing world. WBA 175lb champion Jurgen Braehmer (45-2, 33 KOs) is largely forgotten about by many fans, and some of that is from his own doing and that of his promoters at Sauerland.
Braehmer, 36, is simply not fighting the kinds of guys that would get him the attention from fans outside of Germany, and that’s unfortunate for him because he’s missing out on winning over fans while he holds the WBA belt. On March 21st, Braehmer will be defending his title against his WBA mandatory challenger Robin Krasniqi (43-3, 16 KOs) at the Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbENtOYvT7Y
This is really a poor fight in terms of a competitive match-up against a guy with a chance. Krasniqi is a fighter who was schooled badly by former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 119-109, 120-108 and 120-108. Krasniqi essentially lost every round to what many boxing fans saw as a paper champion in Cleverly. In that same year just four months later, Cleverly was blasted out in just four rounds by Kovalev in August of 2013. The fact that Kovalev was able to trounce Cleverly, a fighter who’d totally dominated Krasniqi, tells you what kind of opponent Krasniqi is.
You can’t blame Braehmer entirely for the terrible match-up against Krasniqi. The World Boxing Association, with multiple champions in many of the divisions, are the ones that gave Krasniqi the No.1 ranking off of wins over the following fighters: Tomas Adamek [yes, I know there’s another fighter with the same name in the heavyweight division], Emmanuel Danso, Oleksandr Cherviak and Dariusz Sek. This is very, very thin opposition that Krasniqi has beaten, and it’s just extremely troubling that the WBA has given Krasniqi a high ranking off wins over this lot. It’s like rewarding Krasniqi for going soft with record-padding opponents instead of forcing him to face the top talent in the division so he can earn the shot or not earn it.
What’s kind of embarrassing is that Braehmer is saying that Krasniqi has earned his shot at fighting him, which I don’t believe he has. It gives the appearance that Braehmer is fine with taking off guys that haven’t been tested.
“Krasniqi has earned his shot,” Braehmer said. “He is number one in the WBA rankings. I’m happy to prove myself against him in this domestic showdown, which will have all of Germany talking. I will as always prepare to for the full 12 rounds, but if the opportunity arises, I will not hesitate to make it another early night.”
Krasniqi totally fits the mold of the kinds of guy that Braehmer has been facing since he picked up the vacant WBA title after beating Marcus Oliveira in 2013. Since winning the title, Braehmer has defended the belt against the following challengers: Pawel Glazewski, Roberto Feliciano Bolonti, and Enzo Maccarinelli. Those guys are all fringe level contenders at beat. I don’t even see Maccarinelli or Glazewski as true top 15 contenders, yet Braehmer fought them. And now he’s facing Krasniqi. It’s just so disappointing that Braehmer isn’t taking on the top level guys like Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, Stevenson, Pascal and Bernard Hopkins.
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