Maccarinelli Wants a Rematch With Afolabi – Boxing News
March 19th, 2009
By Manuel Perez: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (29-3, 22 KOs) was knocked out for the second time in a year, this time by largely unknown Ola Afolabi (14-1, 6 KOs) last Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, Lancashire. Maccarinelli, 28, was leading in the 9th when Afolabi, 29, suddenly unleashed a big right hand that dropped Maccarinelli flat on his back. Maccarinelli attempted to get up but staggered around the ring causing the fight to be stopped by referee Terry O’Connor at 1:50 of the round.
Naturally, if enough money is offered to Afolabi to give Maccarinelli an unneeded rematch, then I could see Afolabi temporarily skipping over a fight with Ramirez. After all, Afolabi matches up very well with the Argentinean and will be big problems for him when they do finally end up meeting.
Maccarinelli is reportedly embarrassed about his defeat to Afolabi last weekend, saying to Steven Bunce on his Boxing Hour show, that he doesn’t know what happened and saying “I believe if we boxed a million times he’d only beat me that once.”
God, I hope he’s right because from what I saw of the fight, Maccarinelli was hurt badly after getting nailed by a right hand early in the fight and had to hold on for dear life. Afolabi then seemed to play around for the next five rounds, throwing weak punches and waiting for Maccarinelli to tire out. You could see that Afolabi was holding back with his power shots and just waiting for the right time to start pouring it on.
The time came in the 9th round, when Afolabi suddenly started putting big power in his shots, backing a tired and shocked looking Maccarinelli around the ring until Afolabi nailed him with a big right hand that put Maccarinelli flat on his backside.
There was nothing spectacular in what Afolabi did; He just started putting power in his shots and took out a tired, weak jawed Maccarinelli. In a way, the fight reminded me a lot of Wladimir Klitschko’s fight with journeyman Ross Purity in 1998, a fight where Wladimir dominated until the 10th when Purity suddenly opened up with a storm of power shots and took Wladimir out in the next round.
In Maccarinelli’s case, I can’t see a different outcome occurring next time out. Sure, he was winning the fight after getting stunned by Afolabi in the 3rd, sweeping rounds four through eight, but that was only because Afolabi looked like he was taking it easy on him and waiting him out.
Obviously, if given a rematch, Maccarinelli will try to compensate by boxing more in the later rounds and make an effort to stay away from exchanges with Afolabi late. However, Afolabi nailed Maccarinelli with a long right hand and with his 6’3″ size and long reach, Afolabi will likely be able to land his power shots late in the fight just like last time.
Even if Maccarinelli tries to fight him at close range and smother him, I doubt that this will work either. Afolabi staggered Maccarinelli in the 3rd in close quarters with his back against the ropes.
Tags: 10 Responses to “Maccarinelli Wants a Rematch With Afolabi – Boxing News”
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Get out while your still not slurring I say! Getting knocked out twice a badly in a year isn’t a good sign.
Yes i agree afolabi should contend for a title,on his record he has 3 draws and a loss by split decision which tells me that hes incedibaly resiliant and any fighter with a sharp defence and and the ability to catch you cold like he did with enzo is capable of winning world titles in my eyes.
It seems a no brainer to me, Afolabi should go for a title, thats what this fight was about, a shot at the WBO title. It was a bit disrespectful for Mac to say he didnt prepare for this fight, implying that he didnt need to, Afolabi won fair and square.
The thought of a rematch bores me. I see Afolabi doing the exact same thing, tucking his chin down and defending his ribs from Macs only real “shot”, the left to the body, and Mac will just punch himself out again because he has no other ideas. Unfortunatly, it appeared Enzo Calzaghe had no ideas either from the corner, jab jab jab then hit the body obviously wasnt working but this is what he told Mac to do, round after round.
Sorry all Mac fans, but he lost and has nobody else to blame for it except himself, Afolabi has the right to move on to bigger and better things, good luck to him.
Afolabis clever and crafty he can give anyone big problems,it was a classic ropadope “ali foreman” type of fight.mac was throwing alot of leather but not landing enough clean shots hes still good though.
Some people are talking as if Afolabi was playing a waiting game – fighting a tactical fight – until he unleashed the finish.
I’m sorry, but he wasn’t. He was boxing crap; outboxed, outworked and out-thought in rounds 4-8 inclusive. He then landed his get-out-of-jail-free card. Even if he’d won the last 4 rounds he’d have been lucky to get a draw. The best you could have him going into the 9th round was 6-2 down. I wouldn’t have been racing to argue with a 7-1 though. Afolabi will need to improve an awful lot to make anymore headlines.
enzo got knocked out. he’s finished
I’d hate to see Enzo quit, yes he got caught out by Afolabi and Haye did was beat him to the punch (could’ve gone either way), but this shouldnt overshadow performances like his first fight with Mark Hobson where he shown his true character and his fight with Wayne Braithwaithe where he shown his best boxing ability too date (probably the most unpredictable of the cruisers and a former world champ). The cruiser division is still quite open and im sure Enzo can bounce back, he has definatley got the ability in him
if enzo knew he had not been sparing for three weeks he should have pulled him out
A rematch for what?So Enzo can get KTFO again?Enzo never even hit Afolabi in that fight.All i heard before the fight was how Enzo was gonna beat him silly.LMFAO!He got put to sleep and Afolabi didn’t look like he’d even been in a fight.Enzo needs to retire.I mean he got put out by the sorry as* David Haye in 2 rounds for god sakes.
Enzo will beat him nevt time i can tell you that for nothing.