(Picture: Photo Wende) By Jim Dower: In a bad mismatch, EBU light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (40-2, 31 KO’s) destroyed journeyman challenger Tony Averlant (18-8-2, 4 KO’s) in a 2nd round knockout on Saturday night at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, in Hamburg, Germany. The 34-year-old Braehmer tagged Averlant with a hard left to the body in the 2nd round that sent him down on the canvas.
Although Averlant made it back to his feet, referee Howard John Foster halted the fight anyway at 2:36. It’s a good thing the referee did stop the fight because as soon as he waived the fight off, Averlant sunk back down on the canvas on his own and continued to clutch at his midsection while grimacing in pain.
The southpaw Braehmer bounced around the ring in the 1st round, hitting Averlant at will with lefts to the head and body, and getting nothing at all thrown back at him. Averlant came into the fight having lost two out of his last three fights, and you have to wonder why the European Boxing Union ever sanctioned this mismatch because it should have never been made in the first place. It was an atrocious fight and a clear step backwards for the 34-year-old Braehmer.
Braehmer says he wants to fight WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, yet he’s fighting no hopers like Averlant and wasting a lot of time with what’s left of his career. Braehmer isn’t getting any younger and he should have already fought Cleverly two years ago. It’s not going to get any easier no matter how many journeyman or Euro level opponents his promoter feeds him. The fact is Braehmer needs to be fighting quality opposition at this point in his career and he’s just not going that.
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In the undercard action, former WBA cruiserweight champion Firat Arslan (33-6-2, 21 KO’s) easily defeated Varol Vekiloglu (20-5-1, 12 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 99-92 and 99-91. Arslan smothered the lighter hitting 29-year-old Vekiloglu’s punches all night long by crowding him and staying in close to keep him from getting his shots off. It worked well, as the 42-year-old Arslan was able to hammer Vekiloglu with big shots while getting little back in terms of power shots from him. Vekiloglu absorbed a lot of punishment in this fight and you’ve got to give him credit for that at least.
Arslan came into the fight having lost his previous bout against WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck by a controversial 12 round decision last November in a fight that many boxing fans felt that Arslan should have won.
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In a surprise upset, WBA Inter-Continental light middleweight champion Jack Culcay (14-1, 10 KO’s) defeated Argentinian challenger Guido Nicolas Pitto (18-1, 7 KO’s) by a 12 round split decision loss. The final judge’s scores were 115-113 for Culcay and 115-113 and 116-111 for Pitto. Culcay was out-worked by the 25-year-old Pitto and he failed to match the punch output that was coming his way.
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In other boxing action on the card:
Dustin Dirks TKO 10 Oleksandr Cherviak
Enrico Koelling UD 8 Leo Tchoula
Dennis Ceylan TKO 3 Nandor Seres
Anthony Yigit UD 4 Andrei Hramyka
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