By Steven Sturges: Using his sharp left hand and accurate jab to inflict punishment, WBO “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) pounded out a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night over Eduard Gutknecht (29-4-1, 12 KOs) to retain his WBA 175lb title in their second fight together at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
This wasn’t as easy a fight as their first fight in 2013 for Braehmer, as Gutknecht tried very hard to get the win. He was constantly attacking Braehmer with flurries in the second half of the fight after failing behind. However, Braehmer, 37, was able to tie Gutknecht up in clinches to keep him from getting his shots off for too long.
Once the two fighters were separated, Braehmer was able to go back to using his jab and straight left hand to inflict punishment to the face of Gutknecht.
The scores were 116-111, 116-111, 118-110.
Gutknecht lost a point in the 10th round for pulling down on Braehmer’s head.
In the last three rounds, Gutknecht had success with his mini-bursts of punches. He had Braehmer backing up and covering up at times. However, Gutknecht wasn’t able to sustain his attacks for more than 30 seconds before tiring and going back to taking shots on the outside.
Brahmer looked good in the fight. He didn’t fight like someone 37. He fought like someone 10 years younger. It obviously helped that he was fighting a limited super middleweight contender in Gutknecht. That wasn’t a mistake I just made. Gutknecht is a super middleweight, and was selected from that division for Braehmer to fight. This is what the sport has come to.
The champions are now picking opponents left and right from the weight divisions below them at times to get easy title defenses. We’re seeing that with WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fighting a welterweight in Amir Khan. Now we’re seeing it with light heavyweight Braehmer beating up on a super middleweight in Gutknecht.
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