braehmer6 By Jim Dower: Making his sixth defense of his WBA light heavyweight title, Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) easily defeated an over-matched super middleweight contender Eduard Gutknecht (29-4-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night in their rematch at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Gutknecht was picked for this fight from the 168lb division rather than the 175lb division.

The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 118-110. The score of 118-110 was the more accurate one of the three, as it was just a one-sided fight. The 33-year-old Gutknecht looked more like a European level fighter rather than a world class guy.

The 36-year-old Braehmer was able to nail Gutknecht with straight lefts and right hooks all night long. Braehmer also landed a lot of uppercuts. Gutknecht had no defense against Braehmer’s uppercuts in the fight as well as his straight lefts.

Gutknecht cut Braehmer over his left eye in the 9th round when he roughed him up at the start of the round. It looked like Braehmer was hit with a head-butt. However, Braehmer was fighting dirty as well with his elbows he was throwing all night long.

In the 10th round, Gutknecht had a point deduction for pulling down on the head of Braehmer. It was a controversial move by the referee because Braehmer had been pulling Gutknecht’s head down periodically and hitting him while his head was pulled down. Braehmer was doing a lot of holding and hitting and not getting called for it. However, Braehmer was the A-side in this fight, so it’s not surprising that he was given leeway with his fouling.

Gutknecht came on strong in the 11th and 12th rounds and landed some nice shots. Braehmer still appeared to get the better of the action with his straight lefts and uppercuts.

It was a good performance from Braehmer. He fought well, and totally dominated his opponent. It would be nice to see Braehmer fight one of the top fighters from the 175lb division like Nathan Cleverly, Andrzej Fonfara, Artur Beterbiev or Eleider Alvarez.