Using a high volume punch attack, former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) defeated WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) after the fight was stopped before the start of the 7th round due to Braehmer suffering an elbow injury tonight at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
The odd thing about tonight’s Braehmer vs. Cleverly fight is the fact that Braehmer was still using his right hand in the 6th. With a dislocated elbow, you would think that Braehmer couldn’t use his right arm at all. Some conspiracy theorists might conclude something isn’t right.
Braehmer will now get his rematch with Cleverly in Germany rather than the UK. Braehmer won’t have to fight the winner of the Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward fight like he would have. It’s a win-win situation for Brahmer. He fights an easier winnable rematch against Cleverly, gets a nice payday, and maybe beats him. The best thing of all tonight for all, Braehmer now doesn’t have to fight Ward or Kovalev.
Braehmer didn’t want to continue after the 6th. It’s a good thing the fight was stopped, because the German fighter would have had to dig deep in the 2nd half against Cleverly. Injury or no injury, Braehmer would have had to find some youth for him to continue to match the furious pace that Cleverly had set. Cleverly was on his way to throwing over 1000 punches in the fight.
Braehmer would have had to take a lot of shots for him to make it the full 12 rounds. Braehmer hasn’t had to fight like that in the last eight years of his career, because he’s been facing a lot of 2nd tier fighters.
Braehmer, 38, gave very little hint of there being an injury, as he was fighting hard even in the 6th. You can argue that Braehmer might have slowed down a tad bit in the 6th, but it still looked like he was getting the better of Cleverly with his hard left hands that he was landing. Cleverly, 29, showed little in the way of punching power in the fight.
This enabled Braehmer to win rounds despite the fact that he was being outworked and outlanded by a considerable margin. Braehmer was fortunate that he was fighting a light puncher in Cleverly and not someone with major power like Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev or Sergey Kovalev. The fight likely would have been over well before the 7th round if it had been one of those guys hitting Braehmer.
Braehmer got the better of Cleverly in most of the rounds. I had Braehmer ahead four rounds to two at the end.
However, Cleverly was forcing the 37-year-old Braehmer to fight at a faster pace than he had since his loss to Hugo Hernan Garay. Granted, Cleverly showed no power whatsoever in the fight, but he was hitting Braehmer all the time and making him fight hard. I don’t think Braehmer was comfortable with that.
***
Other boxing results:
Enrico Kölling W 12 Ryno Liebenberg (…more than controversial)
Artur Mann W 8 Paul Drago
Vincent Feigenbutz KO 6 Guillermo Ruben Andino
Leon Bauer KO 1 Giorgi Khulelidze
David Price TKO 2 Ivica Perkovic
Ohara Davies KO 2 Chaquib Fadli
Kai Robin Havnaa KO 2 Mirnes Denadic
