Headlining an otherwise abysmally poor card on SAT1 on Saturday, live from the Jahnsportforum. Both men are 1-0 in this venue, Brähmer starting his long-awaited world title reign here with his unanimous decision over Marcus Oliveira in 2013 and Gutknecht vanquishing Danny McIntosh via TKO8 in 2011. Brähmer was originally penciled in to make his 6th defense of the WBA light heavyweight title versus Tommy Ooshuizen last November, and was derailed with a hand injury. Oosthuizen himself then pulled out from their rescheduled date of March 12th, with undisclosed "issues" preventing him from making it and leading to Gutknecht being tapped as his late replacement. "Energy Eddy", the Kazakh born and German based contender, has only fought one notable opponent since his loss to Brähmer, and suffered a TKO in 5 at the hands of Dmitry Sukhotsky. He is on a nearly 2-year unbeaten streak of 4-0-1 (3) with three consecutive stoppages, but the foes have been weak - and mostly fought a division south, at super middleweight.
Brähmer vs. Gutknecht I, 2013: [yt]BJm9C743OPs[/yt] Brähmer took it by scores of 117-110, 116-111, and 114-113. I actually had Gutknecht edging it 114-113. (RBR thread: http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=457830)
Very close, yes - but Gutknecht has fought smaller and unimpressive opposition ever since (except with Sukhotsky, who stopped him) while Brähmer has continued to face ranked contenders and performed well. I'd say form definitely favors the champ here.
Given his past success, though, how much is a late-notice Gutknecht really a downgrade from Oosthuizen? :think
You never know Braehmer could get old overnight, and I agree Gutknecht is a far more worthwhile opponent even though its a retread than Oosthuizen, who I highly doubt would have gone the distance with Juergen. I've never rated Tommy very highly, especially after the got the gift against Gonzalez. That being said Braehmer will probably win again.
Stylistically there just wasn't much I saw Tommy Gun having that could trouble Brähmer, whereas Energy-Eddy proved h2h that he could trouble him a great deal.
I think Brähmer stops him. Like I said before, it's the nationalities that landed the titleshots for this weekend, not like they deserved it.
Useful contribution ... which 'german guy' are you refering to, the Pomeranian or the Kazakh born German?:huh EDIT: Brahmer UD, although yes, H2H it may not be quite as straightforward as it would seem on paper. Age certainly isn't on Brahmer's side but a couple of years beating up low level SMWs probably hasn't improved Gutknecht much either.
