Juergen Braehmer vs. Eduard Gutknecht on March 12 in Germany

By Boxing News - 02/06/2016 - Comments

braehmer444By Scott Gilfoid: WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (47-2, 35 KOs) will be dipping into the super middleweight division for his next title defense when he faces 33-year-old #6 WBO 168lb contender Eduard Gutknecht (29-3-1, 12 KOs) in a rematch on March 12 at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.

Gutknecht will be replacing South African Thomas Oosthuizen as Braehmer’s next opponent. Oosthuizen had issues that got in the way of his training for the fight.

There is not much to say about Gutknecht other than the fact that Braehmer already soundly beat him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision three years ago in 2013. Gutknecht appears to be getting the rematch with Braehmer due to Gutknecht being a German based fighter that the local fans will recognize.

It is also possible that Gutknecht was picked out because he is not much of a threat of beating Braehmer, who has been matched very, very carefully since he picked up the WBA “regular” light heavyweight title in 2013 after beating Marcus Oliveira. Gutknecht has won his last four fights against little known opposition since his draw with Pablo Sosa in May 2014. Dmitry Sukhotsky also knocked out Gutknecht in November 2013.

Gutknecht is not ranked in the top 15 at light heavyweight by any of the four sanctioning bodies. He is ranked #6 by the WBO at super middleweight. I guess that is enough for the World Boxing Association to sanction the mismatch.

It’s too bad that the WBA doesn’t require their champions to only defend against fighters ranked in the top 15 in the division they’re fighting in, because I think this is a fight that begs for the sanctioning body to block it in fairness to the top contenders in the 175lb division.

When a champion can pool from lower weight classes to find opponents for them to fight, it is kind of off putting. But if the sanctioning bodies started requiring that champions only defend against top 15 contenders in their own weight class, then we wouldn’t be seeing mismatches like WBC middleweight champion vs. welterweight Amir Khan.

Gutknecht’s last five fights have come against these little known fighters: Arman Torosyan, Slavisa Simeunovic, Steve Kroekel, and Christian Pawlak. I am sorry but I do not see these guys as being even slightly good enough for Gutknecht to be getting a world title shot after beating them. I mean, I do not even know how in the world the WBO has Gutknecht ranked at No.6 with their organization.

I think it is an embarrassment for them to be ranking Gutknecht at No.6 off those wins. It is sad if you ask me. Based off the wins that Gutknecht has had in the last two years, I think he should not even be close to the top 15 ranking. Off those wins, I would rank Gutknecht at No.100 in the WBO’s rankings, possibly a little lower than that. Putting Gutknecht at No.6 with the WBO is just so, so sad. He is getting a high ranking based off wins over fluff opponents.

This should be another easy defense for Braehmer. After he beats Gutknecht, he’ll need to defend his title next against another weak mandatory. The WBA’s mandatory for Braehmer last year was Robin Krasniqi. That was just too easy for Braehmer, and the WBA really did him a HUGE favor by ranking Krasniqi as their No.1 contender.



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