Having failed to capture Jurgen Braehmer’s WBA World light heavyweight title last Saturday night, Enzo Maccarinelli (38-7, 30 KO’s) would like nothing better than to get a second shot at Braehmer’s title if he’s willing to let him. Maccarinelli suffered an eye injury last night early in the fight that eventually led to the bout being stopped before the start of the 6th.
Maccarinelli thinks the bout would have been a much different one had his right eye not swell shut on him in the 4th round. We’ll never know for sure, but Maccarinelli would like to get a second opportunity to show the German fans what he’s capable of doing with two good eyes.
“I’d like to do it again. What I can do? I had one eye, he had two,” Maccarinelli said. “That’s boxing, isn’t it? I gave myself a bit of a chance but I thought they were going to stop it straight away.”
Maccarinelli did come back and fight well in the 4th and 5th rounds, but he wasn’t able to keep from taking additional straight lefts from Braehmer directly on his injured right eye, and by the end of the 5thm his entire right side of his face was swollen. Maccarinelli’s trainer Gary Lockett had no other choice but to halt the fight after the 5th, because he had no way of knowing whether there was a serious eye injury or damage to his facial bones. Lockett definitely did the smart thing in having the fight stopped.
Braehmer might be better off giving Maccarinelli a rematch unless his promoter is going to finally match him against a high quality light heavyweight competition like Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins or Adonis Stevenson. Given Braehmer’s track record, I seriously doubt he will ever fight any of those guys. Brahmer has tended to take the safer opposition during his career for some reason. With the options for fights rather limited, Braehmer should give Maccarinelli a rematch, as long as it doesn’t take him too long to recover from his eye injury.