(Photo credit: Team Sauerland) By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s) towered over the shorter WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) in their final press conference today before their clash this Saturday night, April 5th at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Maccarinelli, 33, sees this as a fight that will end in a knockout, and I totally agree with him in that belief.
I’m just not so sure that it’s going to go in Enzo’s favor, though. I hope for his sake that his trainer Gary Lockett has been working on improving his defense, because he’s going to need it on Saturday if he’s to last long enough to test his own power on Braehmer’s chin.
“I respect Braehmer but he won his last fights because his opponents were afraid to press the action against him,” Maccarinelli said.” I am different – I have the mentality of a world champion. Do not blink as soon as the first bell rings.”
That’s kind of funny. Maccarinelli has the mentality, but his chin seems to have other ideas. There’s no question that Maccarinelli is the better puncher of the two with the bigger size and reach. However, his chin is so suspect that even a light hitter like the southpaw Braehmer might be enough to get him out of there. I’m definitely not impressed with Braehmer, though. He’s some guy that has fought and entire career without facing anyone that I consider a quality opponent.
I don’t know how Braehmer has done it, but he’s gone through and entire 15-year pro career having faced limited opposition. Braehmer’s best opponents during his career has been from the following guys: Hugo Hernan Garay, Aleksy Kuziemski, Dmitry Sukhotsky, Eduard Gutknecht and Marcus Oliveira. I’m sorry, but I don’t see those guys as being good fighters. To me, those are more like 2nd tier fighters.
Sadly, those are the best fighters that Braehmer has fought during his 15 year pro career. Before he was stripped of his WBO 175lb title in 2011 for failing to fight Nathan Cleverly, I was predicting a win for Cleverly over him. I thought Cleverly would dominate Braehmer, and it’s just too bad we didn’t get to see the fight.
If Maccarinelli doesn’t get knocked out or robbed, I think he’s got a pretty good chance of beating Braehmer on Saturday. But with Maccarinelli’s chin and with the fight being in Germany, I don’t know that he’s going to walk out of the ring with the WBA belt. I see him losing one way or another.
“Maccarinelli can let his fists fly as much as he wants, I will be the one landing to decisive punches and that is all that matters,” Braehmer said. “The WBA World Title will not change hands but my hand will be raised on Saturday.”
Yeah, Braehmer is probably right. He’ll win the fight, but I don’t see it as a case of him landing the decisive blows unless he knocks him out. Maccarinelli will land the much harder shots, and will probably look like the winner if both fighters are still standing at the end of the fight.
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