Has Maccarinelli Been Exposed?

By Christofer Ferris: After watching former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (28-2, 21 KOs) get blasted out in two vicious rounds by David Haye last Saturday night, I came to the conclusion that Maccarinelli was not only a poor champion but also not a particularly good fighter as well. Based on what I saw of him against Haye, he looks no better than top 10 in the cruiserweight division, no better than that. He fought almost foolishly as he went directly at Haye, who has a reputation for being incredibly dangerous in the early rounds of his fights.

It’s unclear whether Maccarinelli felt that he had enough power to get to Haye before he unloaded one of his big right hands on him or whether he was sacrficing himself in some wild suicidal attack. Whatever it was, Maccarinelli didn’t look in any way shape or form against Haye. I’d seen a few of Maccarinelli’s other bouts, ones against Wayne Braithwaite, Mohamed Azzaoui and Bobby Gunn, bouts in which Maccarinelli looked like a decent fighter. However, in each one of those fights, Maccarinelli looked more like a slugger without much defense than a truly skilled fighter.

I felt even then that he’d get beat as soon as he fought a cruiserweight with good skills or exceptional power. Little did I know that it would happen so soon. Now that it has happened, though, I see a lot of other fighters in the cruiserweight division that I consider to be better overall fighters and ones that could beat him, if given the chance. That’s not likely to happen in the short term, for Frank Warren, Maccarinelli’s promoter, is likely to shield him from really proven fighters for the time being.

As it is, I see at least ten fighters better than Maccarinelli at this point. It will be difficult for him to avoid fighting these people for long because they’re moving up fast. Alexander Alexeev, Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Rodolf Kraj, O’Neil Bell, and Guillermo Jones are just a few of the fighters that I feel would beat Maccarinelli if given the chance. Not only would they beat him, they’d stop him.