Braehmer stops Krasniqi; Feigenbutz destroys Kelemen

By Boxing News - 03/21/2015 - Comments

braehmer336By Scott Gilfoid: In an outcome that was totally expected, WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (46-2, 34 KOs) made easily work of a badly over-matched #2 WBA contender Robin Krasniqi (43-4, 16 KOs) in stopping him in between the 9th and 10th rounds on Saturday night at the Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

The ringside doctor halted the fight due to 27-year-old Krasniqi having a badly cut lip and a cut over on the side of his left eye.

Braehmer staggered Krasniqi in the 2nd, 5th, 8th and 9th rounds with big shots to the head. In the 8th and 9th rounds, Braehmer nailed Krasniqi with hard punches to the head that sent Krasniqi flying across the ring into the ropes.

Krasniqi was given a count by referee Tony Weeks after he was nailed by a hard right hand from Braehmer that sent Krasniqi flying into the ropes. If not for the ropes, Krasniqi would have hit the deck.

The victory for Braehmer proved that he’s at least the 6th best light heavyweight in the division in my view. I rate Braehmer behind 1. Sergey Kovalev 2. Adonis Stevenson 3. Bernard Hopkins 4. Artur Beterbiev 5. Jean Pascal. Does that make Braehmer a paper champion? I don’t know. That’s up to boxing fans to interpret. I just know that I see Braehmer as being behind the above mentioned fighters. The fact that Braehmer is holding down a title at this time shows you how watered down the divisions are now with the multiple world titles available to be picked over.

I would like to see Braehmer to start facing some better competition, because he’s had it pretty easy since he picked up the WBA title two years ago in beating Marcus Oliveira. Since then, Braehmer has beaten Enzo Maccarinelli, Roberto Feliciano Bolonti, Pawel Glazewski and Robin Krasniqi. I don’t rate any of those fighters as being good contenders. I see them all as fringe bottom contenders rather than top 10 or in the case of Krasniqi, a top 2 contender. I’d like to see Braehmer prove himself against Artur Beterbiev, Eleider Alvarez, Jean Pascal, Isaac Chilemba and Andrzej Fonfara. Of course, I’d much prefer to see Braehmer face Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. Unfortunately, I don’t see Braehmer facing any of those guys, ever.

It wasn’t much of a fight unless you like seeking hopeless mismatches, because Krasniqi didn’t have any punching power whatsoever, and he kept getting nailed by Braehmer each time he would land some shots. Krasniqi did do a decent job of crowding Braehmer in the 6th and 7th rounds to take the power off of his shots, but Braehmer was able to get his distance in the 8th and 9th rounds to hurt him with shots.

The fight was a total mismatch, and it just made the World Boxing Association look bad for them ranking Krasniqi so highly in the first place. Having seen Krasniqi get totally dominated by the light hitting Nathan Cleverly two years ago in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss, it was obvious that Braehmer was going to be able to trounce Krasniqi. But it makes no sense for the WBA to have given Krasniqi such a high ranking so soon after he was dominated by Cleverly.

I mean, the WBA has Krasniqi ranked above the unbeaten Artur Beterbiev. You’ve ever seen Beterbiev fight before, you’ll wonder what on earth was the WBA thinking in ranking Krasniqi higher than Beterbiev in their top 15 rankings. Heck, I have no idea what the WBA was doing in ranking Krasniqi above guys like Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal.

Speaking of Cleverly, Braehmer will likely be facing him next despite the fact that the WBA doesn’t have Cleverly ranked in their top 15, and neither does any of the other sanctioning bodies. It’s going to be up to the WBA to decide whether to sanction the Braehmer-Cleverly fight. I won’t be surprised at all of the WBA gives the Braehmer vs. Cleverly fight a green light.

Clevelry is coming off of a loss to Tony Bellew, and he hasn’t fought in the light heavyweight division since his 4th round stoppage loss to Sergey Kovalev in August 2013.

Cleverly has lost two out of his last four fights, which is why it doesn’t make sense for him to be getting a world title shot right now against Braehmer. That would be like rewarding Cleverly for losing instead of winning. I can see the logic of Braehmer facing Beterbiev next, or fighting the winner of a fight between Beterbiev and Cleverly, but I don’t see how Braehmer can be fighting a guy who has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights. That’s just off putting to me.

“I’m hoping we can get it on,” Cleverly said after the fight about a potential fight against Braehmer. “It would be in September. I’m hoping this fight can really happen. I believe this fight is in the cards. I have one fight in May. If I get that, I believe me and Braehmer can get it on. I’m ready. Once that happens, I’m fully ready to take it off of him.”

***

#5 WBO super middleweight contender Vincent Feigenbutz (19-1, 18 KOs) stopped #7 WBO Balazs Kelemen (22-1, 13 KOs) by a 9th round. Feigenbutz looked decent, but he was too upright, and very, very easy to hit. He showed good punching power, his defense was just plain awful. He was too stiff out there, and he was just fortunate that he was facing Keleman rather than one of the good super middleweight contenders.

Feigenbutz needs a lot of work if he wants to go anywhere in the division, because I can see him getting beaten again once he steps it up against an opponent with some talent.

An athletic super middleweight like Andre Dirrell or Anthony Dirrell would have boxed circles around Feigenbutz if they were in the ring with him tonight. His handlers need to find someone that can teach him how to box because right now he’s just too slow, too mechanical and too easy to hit for me to see him going anywhere in the division.

Other boxing results on the card:

Agron Dzila UD 12 Bernard Adie
Anthony Yigit UD 10 Timo Schwarzkopf
Ohara Davies UD 6 Jacek Wylezol
Stefan Haertel UD 6 Volodymyr Borovskyy
Denis Boytsov TKO 2 Irineu Beato Costa Junior



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