By Scott Gilfoid: There is some disagreement about where the rematch between newly crowned WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) and former two division world champion Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) should take place in the next three to four months. Cleverly beat Braehmer by a 7th round TKO last Saturday night at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
Braehmer, 37, suffered a dislocated right elbow that made it impossible for him to continue fighting no matter how much he wanted to. Cleverly’s promoter Eddie Hearn is talking about wanting the rematch to take place in Cleverly’s home country of Wales; whereas Braehmer’s promoter Kalle Sauerland is saying they want the rematch to take place in Germany.
What we do know is Braehmer has a rematch clause in his contract for their fight last Saturday night, so there will be a rematch. Braehmer wants the rematch. The only question is WHEN and WHERE it will take place and not IF it will happen.
When Hearn brought up having the Cleverly-Braehmer rematch staged in Wales, Kalle Sauerland is quoted by Skysports.com as saying, “absolutely no chance”.
You can’t blame Sauerland for wanting the Braehmer vs. Cleverly rematch to take place in Germany, because his fighter is such a huge draw with his boxing fans. What we don’t need is to have it staged in a place in front of an empty arena or stadium in Wales if Cleverly can’t draw in his own country.
It’s unclear whether Cleverly can bring in the boxing fans. It’s nice that he beat Braehmer to become a two-time world champion last Saturday night, but I’m not sure that this news is going to mean that fans will be willing to come out to see Cleverly fight Braehmer a second time. We know that Joe Calzaghe was a huge draw in Wales, but I’m not sure that Cleverly can be.
“If they want the rematch then that’s not a problem. We’d love to do it in Wales but I think the rematch would be even easier for Cleverly,” said Hearn to skysports.com.
How can the Cleverly vs. Braehmer rematch be easier for Cleverly without an injury occurring again for Braehmer? Cleverly was losing the fight to Braehmer after six rounds by the scores 58-56, 58-56 and 58-56. Who knows when Braehmer’s right elbow injury was suffered? I noticed that Braehmer stopped throwing a lot of punches at the end of the 4th.
Braehmer still get the better of Cleverly in rounds five and six. As such, if Cleverly couldn’t get the better of an injured Braehmer, then it’s fair to conclude that Braehmer beats Cleverly in the rematch no matter where the fight takes place. I’m just saying. Braehmer appeared to be the better fighter last Saturday night, and I don’t see that changing in the rematch.
“We have a rematch clause [which will] definitely go ahead. I don’t see why the rematch couldn’t take place in the next three or four months,” said Kalle Sauerland via skysports.com.
Yes, Braehmer’s dislocated elbows shouldn’t keep the rematch from taking place in the next three to four months. It would be nice to see Braehmer and Cleverly getting back inside the ring to do it again in January or February of next year. It’s too bad Braehmer and Cleverly can’t fight each other in December, because it would be an excellent Christmas present for the boxing fans to see them battle each other in a fight that hopefully will go the full 12 round distance or end in a knockout.
Braehmer’s injury news was a real buzz-kill for the fans, because it was such an exciting through the first six rounds. Cleverly was throwing TONS of shots, but many of them were blocked on the gloves and elbows of Braehmer. The punches that leaked through to land on Braehmer’s head and body were too weak to do anything to the German fighter. Indeed, Braehmer’s face was completely unmarked at the end of the fight last Saturday night. Instead of Braehmer looking like he’d been in a boxing match, he appeared as he’d had a light jog around the park. Cleverly’s punches were thrown with such weak power that they didn’t have any real effect on Braehmer’s face. Cleverly was throwing mainly the slapping variety of punches in the fight.
“I’m sure Braehmer had a bad arm but he looked like he wanted to go home. Cleverly would have gone on to stop him,” said Hearn.
Oh brother, I think Hearn is starting to dream here. Braehmer didn’t look like he wanted to go home. On the contrary, Braehmer looked like a guy that was motivated during the fight. I think Braehmer would have carried on if not for the injury. He obviously wasn’t going to risk his health by fighting with a dislocated right elbow injury, because he could have hurt himself seriously to where it would be difficult for him to come back from the injury.
Cleverly wasn’t showing any punching power in the fight, so there was no way that he was going to be able to stop Braehmer. Cleverly was just slapping with his shots when he needed to be throwing with power. I knew Cleverly wasn’t a big puncher, but I had forgotten how weak he is competed to the other fighters in the light heavyweight division. Cleverly made Braehmer look like another Sergey Kovalev last night.