In the latest boxing news, World Boxing Association/World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion David Haye (20-1, 19 KOs) came out firing again in an interview with South London Press, saying about World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (28-1, 21 KOs) “I can’t see it going past four or five rounds. The only way it will is if he gets a chin transplant from Marvin Hagler – and I don’t think he’s got time to do that in the next couple of months. There’s no way I can see him getting past the early rounds.”
Haye, 27, who won the WBA & WBC cruiserweight titles in an impressive 7th round TKO of champion Jean-Marc Mormeck on November 2007, is making no secret that he plans on going right at Maccarinelli in the opening rounds to try and immediately take him out. Haye’s strategy comes to no surprise to anyone, since Haye fights that way every time, putting everything he’s got into a quick knockout within the first couple of rounds. It’s been an effective style so far in Haye’s career, but it doesn’t always work, like in his fight with former British great Carl Thompson, who calmly took every thing that Haye could dish out in the first four rounds, and then stopped him in the fifth round when he had exhausted himself from having expended too much energy.
Haye hasn’t learned much from the bout, as he still fights the exact same way. What has changed, though, is that Haye has faced much easier competition than Thompson, aside from his bout with Mormeck. However, by the time that Haye met up with Mormeck, the French fighter was on the downside in his career, having fought two tough wars with O’Neil Bell.
Maccarinelli, 27, doesn’t punch with the same power as Haye, but the difference is mostly negligible. Maccarinelli tends to be more focused on his punches, looking for openings, and then letting loose with huge hooks to the body and head. He’s far more economical with his punches, conserving his punches until he sees a target he wants to hit, and then unloading with tremendous power. Because of his more conservative style of fighting, he doesn’t have the knockout percentage that Haye does, but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous a threat.
If Haye going into the bout with Maccarinelli thinking that he’ll stop him in the first couple of rounds, like he does against most of the scrubs he faces, he may be in for a big surprise. Maccarinelli is in his prime right at this point in his career, and will jump all over haye if he comes in wide open like he always does against his lesser opposition.