Maccarinelli vs. Braehmer 2 rematch possible for June

By Boxing News - 04/17/2014 - Comments

macc5By Scott Gilfoid: A rematch between WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (43-2, 32 KO’s) and British challenge Enzo Maccarinelli (38-7, 30 KO’s) is being talked about for June, according to the Argus. Braehmer stopped Maccarinelli earlier this month in a 5th round stoppage due to an eye injury that the 33-year-old Maccarinelli had suffered. The eye injury turned out to be just bad swelling, and not a serious injury to the eye or a fracture of the orbital bone as fans had first thought.

The Maccarinelli-Braehmer fight brought in huge ratings in Germany with over 3 million viewers watching it. This is perhaps the main reason why Braehmer’s promoters are interested in the rematch with Maccarinelli. With interest like that in their fight earlier this month, it would be crazy not to want to have a rematch between them, especially given the way the fight ended.

Braehmer could use the high ratings that a rematch with Maccarinelli would potentially bring him, and it’s not as if he’s facing a serious threat to beating him like he would if he were to step it up a level and face Adonis Stevenson, Bernard Hopkins or Sergey Kovalev.

Braehmer clearly has Maccarinelli’s number, and he’ll likely win the rematch unless Maccarinelli wises up and fights out of the southpaw stance to protect his problematic right eye from the straight lefts that Braehmer will be nailing him with in the rematch.

“We can say that talks about a rematch have started, we are in discussions with Braehmer’s people,” said one of Maccarinelli’s management spokesman to the Argus.

Like their fight earlier this month, the rematch of course will take place in Braehmer’s home country of Germany, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Maccarinelli won over the German crowd with his performance against Braehmer last time, and it’s not as if he was getting booed 24/7 by the friendly German crowd.

For Maccarinelli to have any chance of winning the rematch, he’s going to need to be much more aggressive, he’s going to need to throw more body punches, and he’ll need to figure out a way to protect his right eye. That eye seems to be a problem for him, and I suspect it’ll swell up again once Braehmer starts nailing him with straight lefts. Maccarinelli needs to fight in close instead of a distance, and as I said, he should throw nothing but body shots.

Maccarinelli had problems connecting with head shots due to the head movement from Braehmer, but he was landing at nearly 100% when throwing to the body. By crowding Braehmer and standing southpaw, Maccarinelli could take him out with body shots. That’s what I would have Maccarinelli do in the rematch.

Maccarinelli might want to get a new trainer for the rematch so that he has someone that can spot the things I did, because his trainer Gary Lockett didn’t seem to be offering up any useful advice at all in the corner. The fact that he didn’t have Maccarinelli throwing more body shots, and turning southpaw to protect his injured eye is troubling. I would have made these changes to Maccarinelli’s game by the 2nd round, and I suspect he would have won the fight had he implemented those strategies.



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