Brähmer batters Kanfouah!

Claims Euro light heavyweight belt

By Karl Freitag

Light heavyweight contender Jürgen Brähmer (32-2, 26 KOs) impressively rebounded from his world title loss in November with an fifth round TKO against Rachid Kanfouah (29-7, 23 KOs) on Saturday night to claim the vacant European title at the Freiberger Arena in Dresden, Germany. A determined Brähmer was aggressive from the opening bell, dropping Kanfouah in round two and punishing him throughout the bout. Referee Richard Davies finally waved it off at 2:30 due to Kanfouah’s left eye being swollen shut. Brähmer is aiming a rematch with WBA champion Hugo Garay by the end of the year.
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WIBF/GBU female junior bantamweight champion Alesia Graf (23-1, 9 KOs) retained her titles via ten round unanimous decision over Magdalena Dahlen (9-1, 3 KOs). Scores were 98-92, 98-92, 96-94. This bout was a rematch as Graf had previously defeated Dahlen in a close fight last November.
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In a bout for the vacant WBO InterContinental light heavyweight title, former world title challenger Thomas Ulrich (31-5, 21 KOs) was surprisingly knocked out in round eleven by Mariano Nicolas Plotinsky (15-3, 8 KOs). The aggressive Plotinsky pressed the action all night and explosively ended it with a big right hand with about 30 seconds left in the eleventh.
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In a clash of unbeaten light heavyweights, WBO #2/WBA #6 Aleksy Kuziemski (17-0, 4 KOs) scored a fifth round TKO over Armin Dollinger (19-1, 8 KOs) to claim the EBA European title. Good performance for Kuziemski who got the stop with a barrage of punches after dominating the fight.
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In a further light heavyweight contest, hot prospect Igor Michalkin (8-0, 7 KOs) impressively crushed former world title challenger DeAndrey Abron (15-4, 10 KOs), scoring a second round TKO at 1:34.
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Rounding out the “Universum Champions Night” card, unbeaten junior featherweight Zsolt Bedak (13-0, 3 KOs) outpointed “Destroyer“ Franklin Teran (27-3, 21 KOs) won a twelve-round unanimous nod by scores of 118-109, 117-110, 116-111 to win the WBO European belt, while flyweight brother Pal “Pimpa“ Bedak (3-0, 2 KOs) battered Kemal Plavci (3-26), but was forced to settle for a four round decision with all scores being 40-34.

Photos: Eroll Popova

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March 7th, 2009

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