By Erik Schmidt: Super middleweight contender Jurgen Brahmer (31-1, 25 KOs) stopped Karim Bennama (17-10-2, 4 KOs) in the 9th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Saturday night at the Burg-Waecheter Castello, in Dusseldor, Nordrhein, Germany. Ranked # 3 in the IBF, Brahmer, 29, toyed with Bennama, hitting him essentially at will in one-sided contest on the same card as Felix Sturm vs. Jamie Pittman, which also ended up as a disappointing mismatch. Blame it on bad match making, or then again, maybe that was the original intent.
Whatever the case, Brahmer wasn’t in the least tested by Bennama, who for his part rarely threw more than three punches per round back at Brahmer. The end came in an anti-climatic fashion in the 9th round when Bennama, who had just been hit with a right-left combination to the head, suddenly turned his back on Brahmer and walked away to his corner as if to signal that he’d had enough. The referee then waived off the fight given Bennama’s surrender.
Brahmer needed little more than his jab to dominate the action in the opening round, as he kept a steady flow of jabs coming at Bennama. I could count only two punches thrown by Bennama in the entire round, as he looked as if he really didn’t want to be there. Brahmer, a relatively light puncher, didn’t have the kind of power needed to make Bennama quit, which would have been the best thing given the one-sidedness of the fight.
The second and third round was more of the same with Brahmer mostly jabbing, while mixing in an occasional right-left combination to the head of Bennama. The action was incredibly dull to say the least; Even Brahmer looked bored, as if he knew it was going to be a one-sided fight and couldn’t get into it much. In the third, Brahmer hurt Bennama with a left to the head, causing him to turn around and retreat to the ropes where he briefly covered up briefly before getting off the ropes and continuing with his lackluster performance. I wasn’t sure if the punch landed to his prominent nose or if he was hit in the eye, because the punch had nothing on it, like most of Brahmer’s punches, yet Bennama reacted as if he were stung by a bee on the face. I concluded that it must have been a shot to his nose that caused him to back off. However, most boxers merely take the pain rather than retreating to the ropes like Bennama did. Whatever the case, it seemed very odd.
In rounds four through six, it was almost entirely Brahmer who was doing the punching by this time in the fight, for Bennama was now looking like he just was trying to last out the fight on his feet. Over and over again, Brahmer poured in jabs, right hands, left uppercuts, you name it, all without any response from Bennama. I don’t understand why Bennama wasn’t throwing any punches, because Brahmer was there to be hit and it wasn’t as if he had the kind of power that Bennama should be wary of. As it was, Bennama was getting pounded on anyway, so he might as well have got in a few licks of his own just to feel better about himself afterwards.
Brahmer continued with the one-sided beating in rounds seven though nine, rarely getting hit by anything from Bennama. I give Brahmer one thing, he didn’t seem full of himself while beating the tar out of his overmatched opponent. It was as if Brahmer knew what he had in front of him, and was reluctantly beating him without taking any pleasure at doing it. It’s unfortunate that he should have been matched against such a soft opponent because Brahmer is better than this, and can afford to fight top opponents without fear that he might lose.
Back to the fight, Brahmer finally landed a decent combination, though no better than most of his previous shots, which caused Bennama to turn around and walk towards his corner while holding his right eye as if he had been thumbed in the eye. The referee then stopped the fight immediately, giving Brahmer the KO victory.