STEFFEN KRETSCHMANN vs DENIS BAKHTOV

I think we all agree that one-round finishes can be misleading. They can even be fluke results. A fighter can get hit when he isn’t expecting to get hit, when mentally and physically he isn’t prepared to take a hard shot.

The people behind Steffen Kretschmann, the German heavyweight, obviously feel that his first-round defeat against Russia’s Denis Bakhtov last June was just an accident, because on Saturday the two meet in a 12-round rematch in Hamburg. The idea is that Kretschmann will avenge his loss and then move onwards in his career.

If only life were that simple.

I was able to see the first fight. Kretschmann looked the part of a big betting favourite as he landed left hands from his southpaw stance. In the online live betting, Kretschmann shot up from -700 to -1000 in the first minute. He seemed to be hurting Bakhtov. Then Bakhtov threw a right hand that caught Kretschmann high up on the head. Kretschmann wobbled but it looked as if he might have stumbled — but then he got caught again, this time, on the chin, and that was that. Even though Kretschmann beat the count his legs had gone and the referee waved the fight over.

So, was an overconfident Kretschmann simply unlucky to be hit by a wildly thrown punch that disorientated him, or is there a serious problem with his punch-resistance? Saturday’s rematch should provide the answer.

Bakhtov, I must say, looked as surprised as anyone when Kretschmann went down. The 30-year-old Bakhtov had been hand-picked by Kretschmann’s camp. He was outclassed by Juan Carlos Gomez, a Kretschmann stablemate at Arena Box-Promotion, a couple of years earlier, and presumably what Kretschmann’s promoters saw that night made them feel that the slow and hittable Russian was made to order for the prospect — especially as Bakhtov didn’t seem to have a clue how to handle Gomez’s southpaw style.

One punch can alter the best-laid plans, however. Now Kretschmann has to prove that what happened nine months ago was no more than a bizarre twist of fate.

I remember back in the 1960s in England when a popular heavyweight attraction, Johnny Prescott, was stunningly stopped in the first round by a Nigerian trial horse named Alex Barrow, then outpointed Barrow in a rematch 15 days later.

Prescott’s connections felt that Barrow merely got lucky and would never be able to do it again. The people behind Kretschmann are obviously of similar mind concerning Saturday’s fight.

Kretschmann easily stopped an extremely weak opponent from Turkey in two rounds in his only fight since last June’s shocker, while Bakhtov has boxed twice, knocking over opponents who between them had been stopped 19 times.

What happens this time around is, for me, a toss-up.

The 6ft 5ins Kretschmann towers over the thickset Bakhtov, and he was hitting him easily before disaster struck last June. You would think that, this time, Kretschmann, who was a world-class amateur, will use his height and reach to keep away for a few rounds and then start to come on with pressure and hard punches once he has settled into the fight. Bakhtov caught Kretschmann by surprise in the first fight. He simply might not be able to land that looping right hand again. If Bakhtov does land, though, there is a chance that Kretschmann will be exposed as a big man who cannot take a heavy blow.

This is an anything-can-happen fight. I’ll take a guess that Bakhtov can again land a right hand that will cause Kretschmann to crumble, but there is no result that would surprise me in this fight.