By Alexey Sukachev and Per Ake Persson
Kugelbackhall in Cuxhaven - In an unspectacular cruiserweight contest, WBO #6 Alexander Alekseev (22-2, 20 KOs) stopped South African Daniel Bruwer (22-3-1, 19 KOs) at 1:36 of the eighth round to capture a vacant WBC international title. The fight was one-sided from the opening bell, as the big but unskilled Bruwer got beat to the punch by skillful but barely interested Alekseev. The Russian fighter was afraid of getting punched out and did everything to preserve the energy, which resulted in a very monotonous match. Southpaw Alekseev mixed jabs with left hands until bruised and heavily beaten Bruwer took a knee and refused to go on. He was stopped for the first time in his career.
Heavyweight Manuel "Diamond Boy" Charr (20-0, 11KOs) won the vacant WBC Int´l Silver with a ninth round stoppage of big Brazilian Marcel Luis Nascimento (15-2, 13KOs), who was worn out and retired in his corner.
Charr fought a steady but unspectacular fight covering up well while applying steady pressure. Nascimento threw a dangerous, wild right in the first few rounds but gradually got into survival mode and was good enough to survive as Charr was a bit one-paced and easy to read. But the Brazilian tired and took a beating in the eighth and it was no surprise when he retired.
On the undercard Swedish/Bosnian, by way of Belgium and Denmark, middleweight Adnan Salihu was stopped in the second by Pole Michal Nieroda.
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In a grudge match between Croatian Ante Bilic (26-3, 13 KOs) and Serbian Geard Ajetovic (19-6-1, 9 KOs), the former went on to get a majority decision over eight middleweight rounds. Croatians and Serbians have some historical issues and usually just don't get along well. Both fighters, while showing a classy game and good manners, induced some heated exchanges in the ring, and Bilic proved to be just a bit better than his foe. Scores were 77-77, 78-76 and 77-75 - for the Croatian. Both fighters have never been stopped.
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