A Boxing Memory: Enzo Maccarinelli

A Boxing Memory: Enzo Maccarinelli

There was once a dream of one last dance. Most fighters share that hope that they have one more fight left in them. Enzo Maccarinelli had those thoughts not so long ago. But now the former world cruiserweight champion seems content in retirement. He has his own gym, a stable of young fighters that replicate enough of his former glories to keep any lingering temptations to one side.

Fighters are often their own worst critic. By nature, they demand more of themselves. Maccarinelli had some career. He won virtually every bauble he could. But he told me a few years ago that he felt as though he could have done more.

“If I am honest even though I won British, Commonwealth, European and World titles, I feel I could have done more. There were certain fights I shouldn’t have gone into. If I was doing an office job, I wouldn’t have been allowed to go in, let alone a boxing ring. I look back on some of those nights and think what was I doing, I look back now and think how stupid I was. At least twenty of my fights, I trained myself. When I say I trained myself, it was a stopwatch on the floor punching a bag and no sparring. So I look back at what I have done, and I am happy with what I achieved, but I think when I look back on certain nights, I could have done more. But winning the grand slam in British boxing and winning the world title, I have still got to be happy.”

Maccarinelli might have a point about some of the nights when it didn’t go to plan. Every fighter will tell a similar story. But there were enough nights when it did go right. The no-nonsense Welshman went the old-fashioned route, which many in the modern era choose to neglect. Or avoid. Maccarinelli won the British, Commonwealth, and European titles, and in his crowning moment, the WBO cruiserweight title. It was the full set. In truth, he couldn’t do much more. And even when the decline had set in near the end, Maccarinelli was still an extremely capable and dangerous fighter. He was always seemingly only one punch away from victory.

There may be regrets, especially when it came to his big world cruiserweight unification fight with David Haye in 2008. Maccarinelli caught gastroenteritis in fight week and should have been pulled out and saved for another day. Haye stopped the WBO champion in two rounds at the O2 Arena, a fight which Maccarinelli labels his biggest regret.

“No excuses, nobody made me fight, I shouldn’t have gone through with it, but I did. I went into a fight weighing 14 stone 3lbs a week before the fight spot on for a cruiserweight. But then, a week later, I weighed in wearing tracksuit bottoms, two phones, a set of keys in my pockets, and weighed 13 stone 9lbs. I had caught gastroenteritis, I lost nearly a stone in weight I didn’t eat or train in that week, I had no business being in a ring, I was absolutely gone.“

Before the loss to Haye, Maccarinelli had only lost one previous fight. Lee Swaby stopped an inexperienced Maccarinelli in his fourth fight in 2000, but he wouldn’t lose again for eight years. In 2003, he overcame an early knockdown to pick up the WBU title courtesy of a 4th round stoppage victory over Bruce Scott. Maccarinelli made seven successful defences of his WBU bauble before vacating it to chase bigger things.

The former world cruiserweight champion Marcelo Domínguez fought Maccarinelli for the WBO interim belt in 2006, and the Argentine was stopped in nine rounds by the big-punching Maccarinelli. When the long-reigning WBO champion Johnny Nelson retired two months later, Maccarinelli was elevated to WBO champion proper. The new champion defended his belt four times before running into Haye, and his career hit a mini-slump not long after. A comeback win over Matthew Ellis was followed by back-to-back stoppage defeats to Ola Afolabi and Denis Lebedev. But if anyone was writing the fighting obituary, they would soon find out that it was extremely premature.

A couple of first-round wins gave the career of Maccarinelli some much-needed momentum. He turned down a place on a Prizefighter card, and a lot of money also, to travel to Russia in 2010 to fight for the vacant European title and stopped the hometown favourite Alexander Kotlobay inside a round to crown himself the European cruiserweight champion. Maccarinelli lost his European bauble in his first defence, but he won the British title in an up-and-down thriller against Shane McPhilbin in 2012. Maccarinelli got a revenge win over Ovill McKenzie to add the Commonwealth title, this time down at light-heavyweight, to his ever-increasing collection.

Maccarinelli tried to add the WBA light-heavyweight title to his resume in 2014 against the German southpaw Juergen Braehmer, but a badly swollen eye ended his challenge in the 5th round when he was more than in the fight. That might be one that got away. The promised rematch never did come.

In 2015, Maccarinelli went back to Russia and knocked out Roy Jones Jr. in four rounds. But a 1st round defeat to the Ukraine fighter Dmytro Kucher in a fight for the vacant European cruiserweight title in 2016 at the York Hall was the final dance for the popular and underrated Maccarinelli.

Maccarinelli has a career and a record to be proud of. And I get why he thinks he could have done more from what he told me a few years ago.

“At least twenty of my fights I trained myself. When I say I trained myself, it was a stopwatch on the floor punching a bag and no sparring. So I look back at what I have done, and I am happy with what I achieved, but I think when I look back on certain nights, I could have done more.”

But I also think every fighter has a similar story of what could have been, albeit for different reasons. Maccarinelli, despite some regrets, understands that. “Winning the grand slam in British boxing and winning the world title, I have still got to be happy.”

He might have done more under different circumstances. But what he did do left an incredibly impressive resume. Maccarinelli is old-school with an old-school attitude to the fight game, and the sport today could do with a lot more like him. A plethora of modern-day fighters live in that two-fights-a-year mentality. You sense Maccarinelli would be different.

“I was never scared of anyone, I would fight anybody. The only person who would send shivers down my spine is my father.”