[1] On 27 October 2017, 39 year old former world champion Jürgen Brähmer (49–3, 35 KOs) defeated American boxer Robert Brant to advance to the semi-finals against Callum Smith, who had defeated Erik Skoglund a month earlier, with the fight scheduled to take place in early 2018.

[3] On 15 November, promoter Kalle Sauerland stated the fight could take place in Liverpool at the Echo Arena or Germany.

[5] He later went on to state the fight should take place on neutral ground, mentioning Monte Carlo, Dublin and Amsterdam as potential locations.

[10] 34 year old Dutch kickboxer and boxer Nieky Holzken (13–0, 10 KOs), who was scheduled to fight on the undercard against Dmitry Chudinov, became the frontrunner to replace Brähmer.

Promoter Kalle Sauerland later confirmed that Holzken was the reserve fighter and would replace Brähmer and fight Smith.