Braehmer faces Maccarinelli tonight

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.

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Maccarinelli says “do not blink” for his clash against Braehmer Saturday

braehmer444(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.

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Maccarinelli might stop Braehmer once he connects, says Lockett

maccarinelli32By Scott Gilfoid: Gary Lockett, the trainer for Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s), thinks he could knock WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) out this Saturday night as soon as he lands a big shot at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Maccarinelli has a 3-fight winning streak against Courtney Fry, Ovill McKenzie and Carl Wild. Those guys aren’t anywhere near being in the same class as Braehmer. What this means is that Maccarinelli’s empty wins are no indication that he’s going to be competitive with Braehmer, or that he’s going to have a chance of beating him if he lands something big.

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Juergen Braehmer defends against Enzo Maccarinelli this Saturday, April 5th in Germany

maccarinelli2By 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.

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Braehmer-Maccarinelli: Will Jurgen put Enzo out of his misery on April 5th?

maccarinelli4By Scott Gilfoid: After a six-year dry spell former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KO’s) will finally get another crack at a world title against WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KO’s) on April 5th at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Maccarinelli, 33, has been relegated to the Euro level for the past 6 years since losing his WBO cruiserweight title to David Haye by a 2nd round TKO in 2008.

Maccarinelli has looked pretty horrible in knockout loses to Ola Afolabi, Denis Lebedev, Alexander Frenkel, and Ovill McKenzie. But after all those defeats, Maccarinelli has clawed his way into a title shot against Braehmer on April 5th, and this is his big chance to win a strap, albeit against a fighter who many boxing fans see as a paper champion.

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Brahmer-Maccarinelli on April 5th in Germany

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.

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Enzo Maccarinelli vs. Ovill McKenzie II on Cleverly-Kovalev card on August 17th

maccarinelli2By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (36-6, 28 KO’s) will be facing Commonwealth light heavyweight champion Ovill McKenzie (21-11, 10 KO’s) in a rematch on August 17th on the undercard of the Nathan Cleverly vs. Sergiy Kovalev fight at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.

The 33-year-old McKenzie stopped Maccarinelli in the 2nd round last November in a fight that was prematurely stopped by referee Ian John-Lewis. It was an odd stoppage because Maccarinelli was up against the ropes and covering up and throwing occasional shots back at McKenzie.

I have no idea what made John-Lewis pull the plug on the fight, but I guess he saw something with Maccarinelli that made him step in and halt the fight.

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John-Lewis did Maccarinelli a HUGE favor by saving him from McKenzie

Image: John-Lewis did Maccarinelli a HUGE favor by saving him from McKenzieBy Scott Gilfoid: Referee Ian John-Lewis did the proper thing that a referee should have done in his situation by stopping the fight in the 2nd round last night when he saw that Enzo Maccarinelli (32-6, 27 KO’s) was taking mostly one-way punishment against the ropes by Commonwealth light heavyweight champion Ovill McKenzie (21-11, 10 KO’s) at the Olympia, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.

I know there’s a lot of Maccarinelli fans bellyaching today about the stoppage, but the John-Lewis made the right call in halting the fight, believe me. He was there up close and he saw how Maccarinelli’s head was getting whip-lashed left and right each time McKenzie would land one of his power shots.

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McKenzie defeats Maccarinelli: Referee Ian John-Lewis makes massive error in stoppage

Image: McKenzie defeats Maccarinelli: Referee Ian John-Lewis makes massive error in stoppageBy Gareth Rees: In what was turning into an entertaining bout between Ovil Mackenzie (21-11) and Enzo Maccarinelli (35-6) for the Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight title, referee Ian John-Lewis made what could go down as one of the worst stoppages in the history of British Boxing, as he stopped the fight in the second round.

It had been a good fight up to the stoppage with Mackenzie moving forward, pushing the pace and throwing lots of shots, while Maccarinelli was defending and moving well countering and landing clean punches. Just before the stoppage Maccarinelli had landed a couple of counter shots on the ropes, before Mackenzie came back with two powerful punches that landed. Then Mackenzie threw two more punches but Maccarinelli had his hands up like he had all fight to block the punches, but John-Lewis jumped in and stopped the bout.

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