Eddie Hearn, who promotes Nathan Cleverly, believes his fighter was well on his way to knocking out Juergen Braehmer on Saturday night. He saw Cleverly slowly chopping the champion down and felt Braehmer was looking to get out of there.

Cleverly captured Braehmer's WBA 'regular' light heavyweight belt and his second world title on Saturday in Germany.

After six evenly matched rounds, the defending champion indicated he couldn't continue due to a problem with his right elbow.

Cleverly had been the busier fighter, while Braehmer relied on counterattacks, and seemed to pack a cleaner more powerful punch. Both fighters landed heavy blows in a punishing fifth round and Braehmer said he couldn't compete after the sixth.

"I couldn't punch any more with the right. (I quit) before anything else happened. I'm 37, that shouldn't be it," the southpaw said. "We've agreed on a rematch."

Cleverly improved to 30-3 (15 KO) after claiming his second world title at the same weight. He lost the WBO belt to Sergey Kovalev by TKO in August 2013.

Braehmer had defended the belt six times since taking the vacant title against Marcus Oliveira in December 2013. His record dropped to 48-3 (35 KO). 

There is an immediate rematch clause, which Braehmer intends to exercise. Hearn and Cleverly would love to do the rematch - but they want to stage it in Wales.

Hearn told Sky Sports: "If they want the rematch then that's not a problem. We'd love to do it in Wales but I think the rematch would be even easier for Cleverly.

"He's a two-time world champion and we've recovered from this little glitch in British boxing. People should be very proud of him. They don't know how much he wanted that. We said in the changing rooms before the fight it was about how much you want it. Cleverly was like a man possessed in the changing room. I'm sure Braehmer had a bad arm but he looked like he wanted to go home. Cleverly would have gone on to stop him."