Braehmer faces Maccarinelli tonight

By Boxing News - 04/05/2014 - Comments

maccarinelli12(Picture: Team Sauerland) By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) will be coming into his title defense against Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s) tonight with an 11-fight winning streak in their fight at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Braehmer, a natural light heavyweight, has looked good since his loss to Hugo Hernan Garay in 2008.

Braehmer never bothered to avenge the loss, but he really didn’t need to because Garay’s career immediately imploded with losses to Gabriel Campillo and Chris Henry. Braehmer doesn’t see the 6’4” ex-cruiserweight champion Maccarinelli as a real light heavyweight, as he sees him as someone who has melted down from 200lbs to fight in the 175lb division. Braehmer thinks the loss of weight will hurt Maccarinelli even though he’s been fighting at light heavyweight for over a year.

“Maccarinelli is a former cruiserweight who has had to come down 25 pounds in weight,” Braehmer said. I do not see him as a natural light heavyweight, and I am known for being a pretty good body puncher, so I believe am going to wear him down.”

Braehmer is right, of course. Maccarinelli isn’t a natural light heavyweight, and he’s lost of size and obviously power in moving down in weight. I remember Maccarinelli being a big puncher at cruiserweight, but in moving down to 175, he’s definitely not the same guy in terms of power.

If Braehmer were smart, he’d forget about going to the body of Maccarinelli and instead direct all of his punches to the head. That’s where Maccarinelli has had problems in the last 6 years in knockout losses to David Haye, Ola Afolabi, Alexander Frenkel, Denis Lebedev and Ovill McKenzie. I mean, if you know a guy has a shaky chin, then why in the heck would you want to throw punches at his body? That doesn’t make any sense at all unless you’re not thinking clearly, and haven’t done your homework on the guy. Even without studying Maccarinelli’s past fights in depth, you can see that he’s gone a chin problem. Why throw punches at his body when it’s much easier to tap him on the chin and then watch him flop around the canvas like a fish out of water.

Maccarinelli should have been knocked out in the 1st round by Shane McPhilbin in their fight in 2012. That was the fight where Maccarinelli was dropped in the 1st round, and then bell to end the round was rung 47 seconds early with Maccarinelli staggering to his feet and looking totally out of it. There was no way on earth that Maccarinelli was going to be able to survive the round in this fight, no way. As such, I also count that as a knockout loss for him as well despite the fact that he came back to get a 12 round decision.

Braehmer is clearly not the best of the four 175lb champions, and heck, he not even be a top 5 guy in the division, but he’s definitely got enough talent to beat Maccarinelli. I see Braehmer knocking Maccarinelli out tonight and sending him back home to Wales a loser in this fight.



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