Bill Of The Weekend - 28/01/12

It's not a great weekend of Boxing to be honest, I'm looking forward to the York Hall Matchroom bill, which is televised live on Sky Sports, but I think this one I'm featuring in Germany edges it. Promoted by Universum, and televised live on Sport 1 in Germany, live from Hamburg, sees some big German stars making their comebacks.


The best fight on the bill for me is a 10 rounder for the WBC Baltic title between former amateur star Rakhim Chakhiev and European title challenger Alexander Kotloblay, a fight I've already spoken about in my Prospect Watch feature. That's a great crossroads fight and both guys can punch.

Has Arslan's world title chance gone?

Speaking of cruiserweights, on the bill is former WBA champion Firat Arslan (31-5-1, 20 KO's), who continues to fight, despite being 41 years old. He is in a 10 rounder with Argentinian fighter Orlando Antonio Farias, who's best name on his record is Hugo Hernan Garay, who dispatched him in a round in July 2007. It's not a great fight to be honest, but Arslan seems intent on getting another crack at the world title, despite losing inside the distance in his last two title fights.


A very intriguing fight on the bill sees Juergen Braehmer (36-2, 29 KO's) return for the first time since pretty much giving up his WBO light heavyweight title, instead of facing Nathan Cleverly. There's no doubt this kid is a talent, I'm not his biggest fan, and never have been, but a points win over the tough Russian Dmitry Sukhotsky sits well on his record. Before that he was taken 11 rounds by Aleksy Kuziemski, who ironically replaced him for the Cleverly fight, and was no match for the Welshman, getting stopped in four. Facing Braehmer will be Jose Maria Guerrero (29-2-1, 11 KO's) who you may know was supposed to fight James DeGale last month, and because of that I have studied him a bit. For me he's not got much speed, and looks like a very basic fighter. Most of his fights have been in Spain and his best days look behind him. It will be good to see how much ambition Braehmer has left though, to be honest I didn't expect Guerrero to give "Chunky" many problems.

The mercurial Braehmer is back

The only other three star (Boxrec) fight on the bill bar Chakhiev v Kotloblay sees heavyweights Denis Boystov (29-0, 24 KO's) and Darnell Wilson (24-13-3, 20 KO's) go head to head. Boystov has been very well matched and it's hard to know how good he is, but he has stopped his last six. He's not the biggest of heavyweights however and I think that could be a big reason why he hasn't gone anywhere near any top 25 guys. Wilson's tough, has a good dig, and beat Juan Carlos Gomez in September, which makes him a live and dangerous opponent.


Another heavyweight fight on the bill sees Ruslan Chagaev (27-2-1, 17 KO's) facing the very limited Trinidadian Kertson Manswell (22-3, 17 KO's). Chagaev was beaten over 12 by Povetkin last time out and has a long road back to the glory days, however I do think he would be a great opponent for one of our heavies, most notably Tyson Fury. He's not got bad skills for a heavy and is a good few levels above Manswell skill-wise.

Tajbert is surely targeting a world title in 2012

Like there wasn't enough ex world champions on their way back, another on the bill is super featherweight Vitali Tajbert (21-2, 6 KO's). The former WBC champion is a pretty decent fighter, and although if he was never a strong world champion (making just one defence) he's definitely capable of mixing it in the division. He lost his title away in Japan against world #3 Takahiro Ao, and to be fair did quite well in that fight. He came back with an easy six round points win in September, and will hope for bigger fights than this eight rounder with Venezuelan Jose Luis Graterol (14-10-4, 5 KO's), who looks made for him.


Unbeaten Russian heavyweight Vladimir Tereshkin (13-0-1, 7 KO's) returns to the ring for the first time in 21 months and another unbeaten fighter on the undercard is featherweight Marcel Meyerdiercks (20-0, 5 KO's).


There is actually a 12 rounder on the bill, but it really doesn't interest me as Rafael Berajan (13-1, 6 KO's) and Daniel Urbanski (21-7-3, 5 KO's) face off for the WBO European middleweight bill.


It's not a brilliant bill to be honest as there's no significant title fights, but there's some good, notable, fighters on show and guys like Braehmer, Chakhiev, Chagaev and Tajbert do interest me.