By Erik Schmidt: There could possibly be a bout between newly crowned World Boxing Association light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (18-2, 6 KO’s) and Juergen Braehmer (33-2, 27 KO’s) in the near future. Campillo, 30, pulled off a shocking victory over WBA light heavyweight champion Hugo Hernan Garay in a 12 round majority decision last weekend in Argentina, and it looks like Campillo is looking to set up another bout rather than give a rematch to Garay, who was said to be weight drained in the fight.
Campillo has little power and has been stopped twice in his career. It will be interesting to see how long Campillo can hold onto the WBA title, because he’s got a lot of people going after him.
Valuev vs. Vitali Klitschko
Today’s news about WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko facing WBA champion Nikolai Valuev in a unification bout may be way too premature at this point, because Vitali’s manager Bernd Bonte that there are no plans on a fight between Valuev and Vitali in 2009 nor with Wladimir Klitschko. Bonte is saying that both Klitschko brothers want to pursue fights against other opponents. However, Bonte leaves open the window of a fight between Valuev and one of the Klitschko brothers for next year, but not now, according to RTL, the German website.
Berto vs. Collazo II
According to Fight News, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KO’s) could be looking at facing Luis Collazo (30-4, 15 KO’s) next. The two previously fought on January 17th, with Berto winning a narrow 12 round decision on two of the judges’ scorecards. The fight was controversial, however, because many of the fans felt that Berto lost the fight because of his excessive holding and his poor showing in the middle rounds.
Berto, 25, looked really bad in his last fight, a boring 12 round decision over Juan Urango in May. Like in the Collazo fight, Berto elected to hold a lot. However, in this case Berto held much more than in the Collazo fight, almost after every punch thrown.
The two fights have been a big departure for Berto in the manner in which he used to fight. In fights against Steve Forbes and Miguel Rodriguez, Berto fought in an exciting manner, throwing a great deal of punches and willing to mix it up with his opponents.
However, Berto made a chance to his fighting style from the Collazo on and it hasn’t made him a more interesting fighter. The clinching seems to be detracting from Berto’s once exciting fighting style and there are more than a few boxing fans that have been put off by Berto’s new safety first style of fighting. Berto has some of the best hand speed in the welterweight division.
At only 5’8”, Berto is small for the division. He might be better served if he were to consider moving down in weight, because he doesn’t match up against the tougher welterweights like Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito or the sometimes welterweight Paul Williams.
Sooner or later, Berto might find himself in the situation where he’ll have wished that he had decided to move down in weight when he takes on a tough welterweight weight with size and power that will beat him.