By Alexey Sukachev

Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, Germany - In his first fight of 2016, Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) retained his WBA 'regular' light heavyweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Eduard Gutknecht (29-4-1, 12 KOs) in a rematch.

The scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 118-110.

Gutknecht, a former European champion, accepted the opportunity for revenge five weeks ago after the withdrawal of South African Thomas Oosthuizen, who was pulled out of the fight by his promoter Rodney Berman. Braehmer won what some felt was a controversial decision over Gutknecht in February of 2013, but there was zero controversy in the rematch.

Prior to this bout, Braehmer retained his title five times including two wins last year with TKOs over Robin Krasniqi and Konni Konrad.

After a feeling-out process in the first round, the challenger began to open up more in the second. Gutknecht used his footwork to create angles for a southpaw opponent, while Braehmer relied on his jab and a crisp left hand to bother Gutknecht. Gutknecht had some serious success in the third tagging Braehmer several times (to no effect) but the champion came back with more and bigger bombs during the last minute of the round. The fourth was also a close one but then Braehmer started to do more and to do it better than Gutknecht allowing for a lead to be former in the midst of the fight.

Somewhere at the mid-point Gutknecht had a more telling success, cutting Braehmer's left eye. It wasn't until th ninth, however, when this injury started taking its toll on the champion. Braehmer, four years older than Gutknecht, responded with some well-placed combinations during the third quarter of the match-up. Gutknecht was doing his part of the job but was too slow to start doing some real damage. He was also losing time in each of the rounds to find a better distance and to fire at his best range - this time was used by Braehmer against the challenger.

Gutknecht's position made its turn to the worse in the tenth, when the challenger was deducted a point for roughhouse tactics. Braehmer was fast to capitalize on it during the round. The challenger fired off everything he had in the twelfth and final stanza but it was too little and way too late. TBRB #8 Braehmer, 47, improves to 48-2, with 35 KOs, while Gutknecht, losing his second chance at title, goes back to 29-4-1, 12 KOs, in what was probably his last title chance.