Juergen Braehmer v Marcus Oliveira

Former WBO Light Heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (41-2, 31) gets a chance to once again call himself a world champion this weekend as he takes on unbeaten American Marcus Oliveira (25-0-1, 20) for the now vacant WBA Light Heavyweight title.

Due to the stupid political situation of boxing at times this is a title fight that even I'm finding it hard to be excited by. The true WBA champion, Beibut Shumenov, has been inactive for 18 months, he returns this Saturday in a total mismatch against Tamas Kovacs. Rather than forcing Shumenov into an interesting battle with Braehmer the WBA have instead allowed Shumenov his mismatch and also put Braehmer into a bout that I feel is another equally one sided bout.

Braehmer, for years, has been one of the top 10 or so Light Heavyweights on the planet. He's certainly been beatable but he's never been easy to beat as he's combined solid boxing fundamentals, experience, power and toughness into a very solid all-rounder. Little really stands out about him, but like wise there are many flaws. He's not the hardest working, or the biggest hitter but he's dangerous and does enough more often than not to win rounds.

Although aged 35 Braehmer is a relatively young 35 and has had several breaks from the ring to various issues, including legal matters which have kept him "young" in terms of boxing. He's certainly slowed due to natural aging but he's not taken the excess punishment that he perhaps could have done had he been active these past few years.

Despite Braehmer's age it's worth noting that Oliveira himself is 34 years old and more worryingly this is his first real taste of world class. With 26 bouts behind and a professional career that dates back over 7 years this is a massive step up and it speaks volumes when you consider that Oliveira's best opponent to date was Ryan Coyne, who lets be honest was not great himself.

Oliveira is having the best run of his career with victories over Coyne, Ricky Torrez and Antwun Echols in his last 3. Despite those wins there is nothing that makes me think he will be able to test the talented, if frustrating, German.

Prediction-Braehmer TKO11

Beibut Shumenov v Tamas Kovacs

If I mentioned the name "Beibut Shumenov" (13-1, 8), fans may be forgiven for asking who is he. The Kazakhstan Light Heavyweight who has held the WBA title for just shy of 4 years has been a fighter who we could very easily describe as "MIA". His almost 4 year reign as champion has seem him spending the last 18 months out of the ring and out of action as the division has swiftly warmed up.

Despite once being the hottest property in the division Shumenov's career disappearance has left many dropping him outside of their divisional top 10 and in fact it's hard to argue with them. I, personally, tend to like the idea of "inactive, unranked" which should be the case if fighter simply doesn't fight.

This weekend sees Shumenov returning to action as he takes on the little known Tamas Kovacs (23-0, 14). Who? Exactly.

Kovacs may have a very pretty looking record on paper but he's one of those fighters whose actual record tells us more than the numbers themselves suggest. For example Kovacs has faced one name of interest, Hamza Wandera. Wandera, the younger brother of Kassim Ouma, twice dropped Kovacs on route to a narrow and highly questionable split decision. When you consider that Wandera was stopped in 3 by Ismayl Sillakh this should tell plenty about the credentials of Kovacs.

Aged 36 and hailing from Slovakia we can't help but think that Kovacs is simply a lamb to the slaughter here for Shumenov who should have the power, skills and speed to destroy Kovacs dream any time he wishes.

Prediction-Shumenov TKO6 (after he shakes some ring rust off)