By Erik Schmidt: Light heavyweight Jürgen Brähmer (32-2, 26 KOs) stopped Rachid Kanfouah (29-7, 23 KOs) in the 5th round last night to win the vacant EBU (European) light heavyweight title. The fight was stopped due to a closed left eye of Kanfouah at 2:30 of the 5th by referee Richard James Davies. At the time of the stoppage, Brahmer was having his way with Kanfouah and pounding him with combinations. However, Brahmer hardly looked impressive in the fight despite other reports, as he was hit far too many times in the head and sustained a blood nose and badly swelling around his right eye.
His opponent, the 35-year-old Kanfouah, had little in the way of hand speed and looked painfully slow through much of the fight. Brahmer dominated him at times with combinations and jabs, staying out of his way with movement. However, Brahmer, 30, made the mistake of stopping in front of him in both the 3rd and 4th rounds, and took a lot of nasty head shots.
By the end of both rounds, Brahmer’s face was a masque of blood and swollen from the heavy shots from Kanfouah. It’s strange as to why Brahmer chose to stand and trade with Kanfouah, because when he was on the outside fighting at a distance Brahamer was very effective.
My guess is that his stamina wasn’t good enough to keep moving for the entire three minutes of every round and he had no other choice but to stand and trade. It was a bad mistake, though, because Kanfouah gave Brahmer a pounding. In the end, though, Brahmer lucked out when he was able to close Kanfouah’s left eye with a heavy attack in the 5th. But make no mistake about it, Brahmer looked hardly impressive in winning.
The win puts Brahmer, ranked #4 in the WBA, within range of getting another title shot against champion Hugo Garay, who easily beat Brahmer by a lopsided 12-round decision in November. Personally, I’d hate to see Brahmer fight him against because the fight wasn’t even slightly close with Brahmer getting the stuffing beaten out of him for a full 12 rounds. Unless Brahmer is desperate for a paycheck, he might be better off looking elsewhere at one of the other light heavyweight champions who aren’t as skilled as Garay.
In other action on the card, undefeated light heavyweight Aleksy Kuziemski (17-0, 4 KOs) stopped Armin Dollinger (19-1, 8 KOs) in the 5th round to win the EBA European title. Kuziemski, 31, dominated the entire fight, treating Dollinger, 37, like a punching bag for the most part. In between the 4th and 5th rounds, Dollinger pointed out to his corner that he had injured his ribs on his left side.
However, he was allowed to come out for the 5th anyway. In hindsight, maybe he shouldn’t have, because Kuziemski immediately backed him into the corner and unloaded on him with 10 consecutive head shots, snapping Dollinger’s head back with each impact. In all truthfulness, the fight should have been stopped after the 5th, because Dollinger wasn’t even punching in any of the rounds except for throwing a few worthless jabs every now and then. As bad as Dollinger looked, it’s incredible that he came into the fight with an unbeaten record.