By Sean McDaniel: Former World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (29-2, 22 KOs) will face the green but very dangerous Ola Afolabi (13-1-3, 5 KOs) on March 14th for the Interim WBO World Cruiserweight title at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, Lancashire. Maccarinelli, 28, had been planning on fighting WBO number #1 ranked cruiserweight Jonathan Banks.
However, be pulled out, leaving Maccarinelli scrambling for a replacement opponent. Argentinean Victor Emilio Ramirez, who recently stopped Russian cruiserweight Alexander Alekseev in the 9th round, was next to drop out of a fight with Maccarinelli, reportedly because he needed more time to train for the fight.
Finally, number #5th ranked WBO cruiserweight Afolabi was selected to meet up with Maccarinelli. And as it turns out, he may yet be even more dangerous than either Ramirez or Alekseev in the end. Though Afolabi doesn’t have a particularly high knockout percentage, don’t be confused by the percentages because he easily is the hardest puncher of the bunch, and is probably even a bigger puncher than Maccarinelli himself.
Afolabi is similar to a diamond in the rough, a fighter with tremendous power who just now is starting to figure out the game. With three draws and a loss that all occurred earlier in his seven year pro career, Afolabi has come in the past year earning a knockout victory over Eric Fields in 2008 and a decision over DeLeon Tinsley.
Blessed with a great chin and devastating power, Afolabi has opened some boxing people’s eyes with his win over Fields, a huge upset. But in reality it wasn’t such an upset, because Afolabi was a fighter who because of his huge power and great chin was going to be a problem for Fields from the moment the fight was signed.
There wasn’t going to be a knockout on Fields’ part, I knew that much. His only chance was to somehow try and outbox Afolabi. However, that’s easier said than done because Afolabi tends to fight in surges and once he opens up with hard combinations, he’s hard to beat.
This is exactly what Afolabi did against Fields in the 10th round of their bout in 2008, suddenly opening up with a barrage of punches and taking him out. With the kind of power that Afolabi posses it’s hard to stand in front of him and take his shots for long without visiting the canvas once or twice.
Maccarinelli lost his WBO title to David Haye in a 2nd round stoppage in March 2008 when Maccarinelli tried to trade power shots with Haye was put down by a fight hand. Seconds later, Haye finished Maccarinelli off with a flurry of power shots. Maccarinelli might have had a better chance if he had tried to box with Haye and take advantage of David’s slightly less developed boxing skills.
However, Maccarinelli seemed to take a calculated risk that he could get to Haye before he got to him and went after him full steam ahead in the 2nd. This is something that Maccarinelli is going to have to avoid against Afolabi, who perhaps almost as hard as Haye, except that he throws much better looking combinations that Haye does.
Maccarinelli is going to have to use his jab and a lot of movement if he wants to avoid being knocked out again, because if he tries to stand in front of Afolabi in the same manner that he did against Haye or Matthew Ellis, Mac’s last opponent whom he knocked out quickly in the 2nd round in December, then Afolabi will take Maccarinelli quickly. Even fighting defensively, Maccarinelli is going to have his chin tested often by the huge punching Afolabi.
I’m predicting that Maccarinelli repeats the same mistake he did against Haye, and will get stretched by Afolabi. Instead of running from Afolabi, which is what Enzo should do with his weak chin, he’ll go right after Afolabi and will get hit with a big shot, stunned and then taken out with a flurry of shots. Afolabi can put his punches together in a hurry and throw with massive amounts of power with each shot. My guess is that Maccarinelli won’t have the chin to take those shots and will eat the canvas.
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