Welsh boxer Nathan Cleverly dug deep in his WBA (regular) light heavyweight title bout before Jürgen Brähmer handed him victory by retiring injured.
Defending champion Brähmer had the better of the early exchanges, but an injury to his right arm saw the German withdrawn at the start of the seventh round.
Victory sees Cleverly add another career title to the WBO light heavyweight belt he held earlier in his career and retained several times before losing it to Sergey Kovalev in 2013.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsBoxing/status/782333274144305153
https://twitter.com/MatchroomBoxing/status/782333866354831360
Praise for Cleverly has already arrived from across the sporting world, and while the Caerphilly fighter would have liked to win in different circumstances, he's unlikely to have too many complaints.
https://twitter.com/LeonMckenzie1/status/782334010974466049
https://twitter.com/spike_osullivan/status/782334539326775296
https://twitter.com/Connolly035/status/782335215637241856
https://twitter.com/_DaveEdwards/status/782335609193005056
If Brähmer's injury proves serious - and his surprise withdrawal suggests it may well be - then the pair may well have to wait some time before a rematch is scheduled.
That means another opponent could arrive before Cleverly takes on the German again - perhaps someone with whom he has unfinished business...
https://twitter.com/hflbend/status/782334640979783680
https://twitter.com/ryanatkinson14/status/782334899537715200
https://twitter.com/_Badlands_/status/782333787434803200
Kovalev's next fight comes against Andre Ward in November, with both fighters defending unbeaten records at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If the Russian wins to go 31-0-1, could we find ourselves in a situation where a rematch with Cleverly is on the cards sooner than we expected?
