Brähmer injures back, pulls out of Saturday’s fight against Lakatos

By Erik Schmidt: In a bit of bad news, World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Jürgen Brähmer (36-2, 29 KO’s) injured his back on Thursday afternoon while training for this Saturday’s fight against #8 ranked WBO challenger Alejandro Lakatos. Regrettably, the 31-year-old Brahmer will be unable to make the fight and will need time to recover and rehabilitate from the injury.

According to fiightnews, there wasn’t any serious injuries sustained, such as a slipped disc. However, Brähmer will still be unavailable for Saturday’s fight against Lakatos. The fight card still has many good fights on it even without Brahmer. Former 2004 Olympian Alexander Alekseev will be facing knockout artist Denis Lebedev in a WBO cruiserweight title eliminator bout, and Susi Kentikian faces Arely Mucino. The fight between Alekseev and Lebedev should be especially interesting while it lasts.

Lebedev, a southpaw, hits very hard and has a recent knockout victory over former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli last year. Alekseev has superb boxing skills, but suffers stamina problems when he’s pressured hard and when his fights go beyond seven rounds. Lebedev could score a knockout over Alekseev if he can keep the pressure on him long enough and make him work harder than he usually does.