Sturm, Guzman and Braehmer, Oh My!
A lot of fighters catch flack for little to no reason. It’s the nature of boxing. The one-on-one dynamic of the sport, coupled with boxers’ souls being revealed in the ring, can give way to more pointed critique than what other athletes endure. If you didn’t know any better, you would think the fighters most worthy of critique nowadays are Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and maybe Wladimir Klitschko. They all catch their fair amount of negativity. But in comparison, there are other fighters who make them all look like Harry Greb in his prime. Here are some boxers who really deserve the bad press:
Felix Sturm: Sturm is unquestionably a fine boxer. He’s athletic, can box, and has been ranked as one of the top guys at 160 for quite a few years. The problem is that he’s held a version of the middleweight title for almost 8 years and he won’t fight anybody! An obscure titlist, he gave up his strap to Oscar De La Hoya in 2004 in a very controversial decision. At the time, it was hard to not like the kid—a young and gifted fighter who appeared to beat one of the top fighters in the sport.
Well now it’s 2011 and it’s become hard to like the guy. One would have expected him to have booked a big fight in the last 7 years, no? Some of the European middleweights he has beaten were pretty good, but the American imports he fought were decidedly second-rate. His list of opponents doesn’t read so badly, but when one considers the big names he never fought, it seems like an unfulfilling title reign.
The kid who everyone thought beat the Golden Boy never capitalized on the heat he generated from that performance. With all the high-stakes fights at 160 over the past several years, Sturm never so much as dipped his big toe into the pool. When big fights are discussed at 160, his name never comes up. For a longtime titleholder to be in that position is quite disappointing. Sturm, his management, and his fans seem unconcerned by the fact that he has settled on merely being good when the opportunity for greatness was shamefully left on the table.
Joan Guzman: What in the world happened with this guy? Anyone wanting to know how to screw up a good thing should take notes from Guzman. A mega-talented boxer, he won a title at 122 in 2002 and was building up some good buzz. In 2006, he scooped up another strap at 130 with a win over Jorge Barrios. Things were looking up for the Dominican speedster.
After a December 2006 defense over Antonio Davis, we started to notice some disturbing signs. He took off an entire year before facing Humberto Soto. Though he notched a good win by decisioning Soto, it all started to go south. Though moving up to 135 for the very first time against unified champ Nate Campbell, he somehow managed to come in 4 pounds overweight and the fight got scratched at the last minute. 6 months later, he was somehow able to make 135 for a far less important fight when he beat Ameth Diaz.
Guzman capitalized on that momentum by taking another year off, before getting a gift draw over Ali Funeka in November 2009. A rematch was scheduled for 4 months later, and Guzman weighed in 9 pounds over the limit! He won a split decision, but his lack of professionalism was stunning. A 9-month layoff followed, before he notched a win over journeyman Jason Davis. But a positive Guzman drug test changed the result into a “no contest.” Whereas most fighters’ careers nosedive at least partially from stuff that happens in the ring, the unbeaten Guzman has managed to destroy his own career without anyone’s help.
Juergen Braehmer: It’s difficult to see how there can be any Braehmer fans remaining. The first thing that might annoy one about the German trinket-holder is how he has managed to become a high-profile fighter despite never having notched a really good win. As if that’s not enough, he has now pulled out of 3 straight fights. First he pulled out of a fight with Alejandro Lakatos. I won’t pretend to know the details of that pullout because the fight itself escaped my interest, as is the case with most of Braehmer bouts.
Then he was all ready to go against exciting Beibut Shumenov. You might have secretly thought, “Well, that’s a good sign.” On the week of the fight, he again pulled out, citing an illness. The shots of him lying in bed were certainly of little consolation for the droves of people who were inconvenienced by the last-second change of plans. This week, he again bailed out of a fight with Nathan Cleverly because of an apparent cut.
Enough! Three consecutive pullouts means you should retire immediately. If you can’t get in the ring, you shouldn’t be an active boxer—period. And guess what—I don’t think it’s coincidental that he always seems to come down with something just as he is poised to fight someone who he can’t beat. When he was fighting telephone book filler for over a decade, he was as healthy as a horse. Start scheduling tough opponents and all of a sudden he’s Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Imagine all the work that goes into staging these events—from the preparation of his opponent to everyone else involved. That amounts to an incalculable amount of wasted time and energy that Braehmer has caused. Life is too short for people to spend anymore of their effort on this waste of space. It’s no wonder that the public’s perception of the world title scene has decayed when you have “world champions” like Juergen Braehmer walking around.
Guillermo Jones: I was on-board. It was compelling that a 6’4”fighter who once weighed 145 and fought in a pair of 154-pound title bouts could morph into a formidable 200-pounder. That was a good storyline and I liked the way he fought. Since he lost to Laurent Boudouani in 1998, the only blemish on his record was a split decision loss to Steve Cunningham in 2005.
Knockouts of Kelvin Davis and Wayne Braithwaite later that same year restored some luster. That was 2005. We’re in 2011 and he’s fought 4 times since. Two 2007 tune-up wins led to a title-winning knockout against Firat Arslan in September 2008. He didn’t fight again until October of last year when he stopped Valery Brudov in 11 rounds.
Why did the WBA allow him to put the title on ice for two years? Are we in the middle of World War II? Is he Jack Dempsey? Could it be connected to the fact that both Jones and the WBA are based in Panama? In any event, Jones is now 39 and running out of time. It’s difficult to get behind a guy who approaches his career with such a lack of zeal. 4 fights since 2005 is no way for a fighter to fight, especially a so-called “champion.”
