By Dave Lahr: Interim WBO cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (14-1, 6 KOs) came out of nowhere to destroy popular British cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli (29-3, 22 KOs) in a 9th round stoppage on March 14th on March 14th at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, Lancashire. Afolabi, who comes from England but has learned his trade in the United States under Freddie Roach, initially hurt Maccarinelli with a right hand in the 3rd round, and then came back later to knock Maccarinelli with another big right hand in the 9th.
In between that time, Afolabi played around with Maccarinelli giving him hope that he could possibly win by letting him land some shots. However, when the time was right, Afolabi sprung his trap and destroyed Maccarinelli with an enormous right hand in the 9th, sending Enzo down on his back on the canvas.
The win puts Afolabi, 29, in an enviable position to fight big money fights for the first time in his seven-year boxing career. It was assumed that Afolabi would be fighting WBO interim champion Victor Ramirez for the title in the near future.
Unfortunately, Afolabi hasn’t heard a word from Ramirez’s German promoters. Perhaps it’s a good thing for Ramirez, because I would give him next to no chance of beating Afolabi if the two were to fight. Ramirez, in fact, is probably fortunate to have beaten Alexander Alexeev, who Ramirez stopped in the 9th round in January 2009, because Ramirez looked unspectacular for most of the fight and seemed to win only because Alexeev ran out of gas.
Afolabi is open to any fight as long as it pays well, mentioning opponents like IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek and number #4 ranked IBF/WBC contender Marco Huck as possible fighters that he’d be interested in getting in the ring with in the future.
There was talk of Afolabi possibly fighting Maccarinelli in an immediate rematch, but it’s unclear whether Enzo’s handlers will allow him to take a risky fight like this right away given Maccarinelli’s bad knockout loss to Afolabi in March.
Personally, I think it would be a dangerous thing for Maccarinelli to get back in the ring with a hard puncher like Afolabi so soon, because Maccarinelli was badly hurt twice in his fight with Afolabi and probably needs some extra rest before taking on a hard puncher like Afolabi again.
Maccarinelli has been stopped two out of his last three fights, albeit against hard punchers, but it seems like Maccarinelli needs to take a break and get some confidence boosting wins under his belt before he takes on someone like Afolabi again.
I had have little doubts that Afolabi would take a fight with Maccarinelli in a second of the fight pays well for him. It probably would, because there’s not a log of other options out there in the cruiserweight division for Afolabi unless it involves him fighting a unification match with WBC champion Giacobbe Fragomeni or WBA title holder Guillermo Jones.
Froch Sparring with Pascal
Hoping that he can get some useful tips in how to defeat former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (24-0, 19 KOs) is using number #4 ranked WBC super middleweight contender Jean Pascal as a sparring partner for the Taylor bout. Froch needs a sparring partner than can partially mimic the blazing hand speed of Jermain Taylor and Pascal, perhaps more than any other super middleweight with the exception of Andre Dirrell and Allan Green, comes closest to being as fast as Taylor.
Froch and Pascal will reportedly be sparring today for preparation for Froch’s April 25th title defense against Taylor at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Froch, 31, will be making the flight to the United States in order to seek more world wide publicity and to get a better opponent than he would have likely received should Froch had chosen just to defend his title in England.
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