By Allan Fox: Michael Katsidis (28-5, 23 KO’s) returns to the ring on Friday night in the 140 pound division to try and open up a new chapter in his boxing career against Albert Mensah (24-3-1, 10 KO’s) in a 10 round bout at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Katsidis, 31, hasn’t been doing too well lately, losing to Juan Manuel Marquez, Robert Guerrero and Ricky Burns.

Those were fights in which Katsidis appeared to bite off a little more than he could chew in taking on guys that were a little too good for him. The Burns loss, a 12 round decision defeat last November, wasn’t so much of a huge loss for Katsidis. It was more of a case where Katsidis was fighting a guy a lot taller and heavier in the 5’10” Burns, who looked like a junior middleweight after he rehydrated after weighing in for the fight.

Katsidis didn’t have the weight or the height to compete with Burns. I’m not sure how things will be better for Katsidis in moving up to light welterweight, because he’s going to continue to face bigger fighters again and again. At 5’7″, Katsidis doesn’t have the frame or the arm length to compete against the bigger 140 pounders in this division, and he’ll probably have to find out the hard way that he’s better off fighting at 135. At least at that weight, Katsidis is sometimes bigger than his opposition and most of the time the same size.

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Juergen Braehmer takes on Vikapita Meroro on April 21

Juergen Braehmer (37-2, 30 KO’s) will return to the ring on April 21st to fight Vikapita Meroro (21-3, 9 KO’s) in light heavyweight action at the the Sport and Congress Center, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommem, Germany. Braehmer’s inactivity in the last two years has resuled in him having his World Boxing Organization light heavyweight title stripped from him by the WBO and handed to Nathan Cleverly, who in turn is facing the same kinds of lesser threats that Braehmer was doing as the champion. Braehmer has fought only once since April 2010, when he beat Jose Maria Guerrero by a 4th round TKO last January.

Braehmer looked pretty good for someone who had been out of the ring for nearly two years. But the time off has hurt Braehmer in the rankings, because even though he hasn’t lost a fight in four years, Braehmer sees himself ranked #15 by the WBC, well below a lot of fighters that he could probably easily beat. Braehmer is still good enough to likely beat all of the champions expect for perhaps 7-year-old Hopkins. However, Braehmer can’t do any of that if he’s not staying active by fighting regularly rather than taking time off.