Lebedev Destroys Maccarinelli, Enzo’s Career All But Finished

By Nate Anderson: Former World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (29-4, 22 KO’s) faces some serious career decisions after being stopped in the 3rd round tonight by Russian Denis Lebedev (18-0, 13 KOs) on the undercard of WBA light welterweight championship bout between title holder Andriy Kotelnik and Amir Khan tonight at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England.

The loss, Maccarinelli’s third knockout defeat in his last four fights, is a crushing one for his career because Maccarinelli had selected someone whom he felt was a beatable fighter in choosing Lebedev. However, Maccarinelli, who had suffered two serious knockouts at the hands of David Haye and Ola Afolabi going to into this fight, perhaps should have looked for a fighter with less power, weaker chin a non-southpaw.

Maccarinelli was hurt in the 3rd round from a huge left uppercut from Lebedev that hit Maccarinelli square in the nose, sending him backwards retreating to the ropes. Maccarinelli’s nose immediately began to bleed from the heavy shot. With Maccarinelli hurt, Lebedev teed off on him while Enzo stood helpless against the ropes. Maccarinelli absorbed some huge shots and briefly was able to get the fight to the center of the ring.

However, Lebedev kept hammering him with big shots, taking the time to wind up and put every ounce of energy into every punch because Maccarinelli was just standing and covering up and not firing back with any punches of his own. With Maccarinelli staggering around after getting hit with a brutal looking left hand from Lebedev, referee Terry O’Conner, seeing Maccarinelli’s desperate situation, stepped in and halted the fight at 2:20 of the 3rd. At the time of the stoppage, Maccarinelli looked pretty well beaten up with his right eye almost completely closed, a small cut over the eye and his nose bleeding like a faucet.

In the 1st round, Maccarinelli absorbed some powerful left hand shots from Lebedev, one of them, a straight left to the midsection, knocked Maccarinelli backwards against the ropes. Lebedev landed some powerful body shots in the round and was able to take advantage of Maccarinelli’s passivity.

A problem that Maccarinelli had was that he failed to use his height to control the shorter Russian fighter. Maccarinelli could have easily dominated Lebedev if he had chosen to fight on the outside like using his jab to control the action in the same way that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko does against his shorter opponents. However, Maccarinelli has always been the type of fighter that stands straight up at close range and likes to throw a lot of body shots. Against a powerful puncher like Lebedev, it was a fatal mistake, especially given that Maccarinelli was coming off a bad knockout loss in his last fight.

The 2nd round was close as Maccarinelli landed some nice body shots. However, he let Lebedev get in close far too often in the round and was hit often with the Russian’s best shots. The round may have been close, but Maccarinelli was getting the worst of it and his right eye and forehead was reddening by the end of the round.

Going into the 3rd round, Maccarinelli needed to box if he was to avoid getting knocked out again. Unfortunately for him, that’s not what he did in the 3rd round as he stood directly in front Lebedev and was pummeled for the entire round until the fight was stopped by referee Terry O’Conner at 2:20 of the 3rd.
After the bout, Maccarinelli mentioned retirement as a possibility. However, he made a big mistake in choosing such a big puncher after sustaining two knockout losses in recent fights and should have been looking to rebuild his career against weaker punchers than Lebedev.

It seemed that Maccarinelli’s courage led to his downfall in this fight. I could see immediately that Lebedev was all wrong for Maccarinelli as the fight started, because Lebedev power was quite good, perhaps even better than Maccarinelli’s and the Russian’s southpaw stance seemed to cause Maccarinelli immediate problems. In hindsight, choosing a hard punching southpaw as a comeback opponent, after a knockout as bad as the one that Maccarinelli suffered against Afolabi, seems like not the wisest of moves that Maccarinelli could have taken.

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