By Scott Gilfoid:< WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) will be defending his title this Saturday night against a fighter who could be at the last chance saloon in 33-year-old Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s) at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Maccarinelli, #7 WBA, seems to have picked out based on him having previously held the WBO cruiserweight strap from 2006-2008 until losing it to David Haye by a 2nd round knockout in March of 2008.
Not long ago, Maccarinelli was losing his fights left and right, but he’s finally turned things around with three straight wins over little known domestic level competition. It’s good that Enzo has turned his career around, because he’s going to need to be at 100 percent this Saturday night if he’s to beat Braehmer to take his WBA title. To be sure, Braehmer’s not in the class of guys like Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, but he’s plenty tough for a fighter like Maccarinelli.
“He’s [Braehmer] up on his toes, uses his jab and is very effective in what he does – but I’m going to walk straight through him,” Maccarinelli said to Walesonline. “People has said that Braehmer is the weakest of the world champions, but his amateur style probably suits me less than the others.”
Maccarinelli is wrong here. Braehmer is pretty much the weakest of the 175lb champions. Believe me, it gets much tougher than Braehmer when you get to the likes of Kovalev and Stevenson. Those guys don’t suit Maccarinelli at all, and I definitely can’t see him doing better against them than he will against Braehmer.
If Maccarinelli loses this fight on Saturday to Braehmer, then Maccarinelli is going to need to think seriously about retiring from the sport because I can’t see him coming back from this.
Also on the card is unbeaten heavyweight contender Kubrat Pulev facing an opponent still to be determined. It’s definitely not a good sign that they haven’t nailed down an opponent given there’s only 6 days before the fight. Pulev is scheduled to fight an 8 round bout, so we’re talking a fodder opponent for him. He’s already locked in as WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s mandatory challenger, so he’s not going to be taking any chances of him getting whipped by facing someone good.
Other fights on the card are as follows:
Jack Culcay vs. Salim Larbi
Tyron Zeuge vs. Gheorghe Sabau
Yuri Pompilio vs. Liam Williams
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