Brahmer-Maccarinelli on April 5th in Germany

By Boxing News - 02/04/2014 - Comments

maccarinelli2By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) will be making his first title defense of his WBA 175 lb title on April 5th against 33-year-old former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s) at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Brahmer, 35, recently captured the vacant WBA title in beating little known fighter Marcus Oliveira by a dull 12 round unanimous decision last December. Oliveira, 34, had gotten ranked high enough to fight for the title based on a resume filled with less than stellar opposition.

I really don’t rate Maccarinelli. I still see him as a fighter who is pretty much past it. He still has good power, but he’s someone that is a knockout waiting to happen anytime he’s in with someone halfway good. Maccarinelli might actually win this fight if he can put his punches together, and throw enough shots to get a decision or maybe a stoppage. Given that the fight will be taking place in Germany, I can’t see Maccarinelli getting a decision no matter what he does in the ring. He’s pretty much in a situation where he will need a knockout to win. I just hope he realizes that. If he fights like a tall stork and just throws half-hearted shots, he’ll lose by decision.

The 35-year-old Brahmer has decent power, but he’s pretty limited, and he’s not had a real fight against anyone remotely for many, many years. You got to hand it to Brahmer’s handlers with their skillful match-making, because they’ve done a good job of keeping him away from guys that would have likely beaten him badly. I think Brahmer would have lost to Nathan Cleverly had he fought him in 2011 when Brahmer was supposed to have fought Cleverly in defending his WBO title. Brahmer ended up getting stripped of his WBO strap for failing to defend his title. I expect the same thing to happen with Brahmer when he eventually has to fight someone that is clearly way too good for him. I see him not making it to the ring.

Brahmer has beaten the following fighters in his last 6 fights: Marcus Oliveira, Stefano Abatangelo, Tony Averlant, Eduard Gutknecht, Vikapita Meroro and Jose Maria Guerrero. What jumps out at you is the total lack of quality of opposition that Brahmer has fought. He’s been taking the real safe fights against Euro level opposition and no one that could potentially knock him out. The last time that Brahmer was beaten was in 2008 when he was beaten by Hugo Hernan Garay in a 12 round unanimous decision. It’s interesting to note that Brahmer never attempted to avenge the defeat.

I guess you could say that Maccarinelli has sort of turned his career around with three straight wins since his 2nd round stoppage loss to Ovill McKenzie in November 2012. Maccarinelli avenged the loss to McKenzie in halting him in the 11th round last year in August in a war at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales. It was a fight that McKenzie could have easily won had he stepped on the gas early in the fight when Maccarinelli is typically vulnerable to getting knocked out.

Maccarinelli dodged a bullet in his fight against Shane McPhilbin in their fight in March of 2012. In that fight, Maccarinelli was knocked down in the 1st round by McPhilbin, and the round ended 47 seconds early just after a badly hurt Maccarinelli got back to his feet. As hurt as he was, it’s hard to see how he would have made it out of the round without McPhilbin knocking him out. I pretty much count that fight as a loss for Maccarinelli, even though he was able to regroup and eventually win the fight by a 12 round decision. When you see a round ending 47 seconds early after a well known fighter like Maccarinelli gets knocked down, it just makes you wonder whats happening in UK boxing. Maccarinelli was clearly the A side of this fight, while the lesser known McPhilbin was the B side. Due to the controversy of the knockdown, I would have liked to have seen a rematch between these two guys, because that just wasn’t right what happened in the 1st round.

I can’t say that I feel that Maccarinelli has done enough to earn a title shot against Brahmer, but then again the division is so incredibly weak that I guess there’s much to pick from in terms of contenders. There’s only like 4 good fighters in the entire division, and 2 of them those guys hold down titles in Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.



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