Hard-hitting hot prospect Roarke “Razor” Knapp is going to get knocked out by Brandon “Fast Guns” Thysse in their tantalising rematch at Emperors Palace on December 4, assertive trainer Damien Durandt predicted  yesterday.

“We knocked him out in our first fight in 2019 and we are gonna knock him out again,” he said.

Durandt has quietly established himself as one of the few young trainers who have achieved a lot in a short space of time.

His success in producing WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu earned Durandt the WBC’s trainer’s belt. He was the first African trainer to get such recognition. Even his father Nick “Mthakathi” Durandt, the country’s most successful trainer, died in 2017 without having achieved such a feat.

Promoter Rodney Berman, whose Golden Gloves company guides the careers of Thysse and Knapp, has dangled a carrot of 60% of the R600,000 prize money for the victor.

Added Durandt: “It is going to be fireworks. Brandon is excited and is looking forward to the fight. After this fight Brandon should be competing at international level only.”

It will be the first fight for Thysse without his father in the stands. The former SA and Commonwealth super middleweight champion, who had become a top boxing promoter, died in July. He groomed both his son and Knapp under his Real Steel Promotion.

In his last fight, Thysse knocked out Tomi Silvennoinen in the 10th round while Knapp pulverised Benoit Makangial into submission in three rounds. Both fights took place at the Palace of Dreams in June. Thysse, 27, has left 12 of his 14 victims gasping for air while 23-year-old Knapp, whose skills are polished by Vusi Mtolo, boasts 10 K0s in 12 wins.

Knapp’s stablemate and recently crowned SA junior-middleweight champion Shervontaigh Koopman will make the first defence of the national title he won with a seventh-round knockout of defending champion Simon Dladla last month.