By William Mackay: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (32-5, 25 KO’s) was blasted out in the 7th round on Saturday night against German based Ukrainian Alexander Frenkel (23-0, 18 KO’s) at the LG Arena, in Birmingham. I predicted that Maccarinelli, 30, would get knocked out in this fight and I was right with my predictions when Maccarinelli got a little over-confident in the 7th and tried to slug with Frenkel.
What happened then was Frenkel tagged Maccarinelli with a big left hook just when Maccarinelli was trying to throw a left hook of his own. The punch from Frenkel knocked Maccarinelli down on his back with his head hitting the bottom ropes. The fight should have been stopped right then and there but the referee wanted to give Maccarinelli a chance to clinch his way out of the round.
Instead of skillfully trying to clinch, Maccarinelli leaned forward and got hit with a big left followed by right hand and then another big left hook that snapped Maccarinelli’s head back sending him down on his back on the canvas. The punch knocked Maccarinelli clean out for around 30 seconds.
Unlike a lot of people, I don’t think Maccarinelli is a shot fighter and I don’t think he should retire. He just fought a stupid fight by trying to throw a lot of hooks against a slugger like Frenkel. If you’ve got a weak chin, the last thing you want to do is throw hooks and lean forward the way that Maccarinelli was doing the entire fight.
He doesn’t know how to jab properly and has a bad habit of leaning in with his head bent over just begging to be punched. If Maccarinelli had a good American trainer like Emanuel Steward or Freddie Roach, I think they could teach him how to use his height and reach and save him from being knocked out over and over again.
There was no need for Maccarinelli to start throwing left hooks when he was beating Frenkel with his jabs. It was a winnable fight, but Maccarinelli had to blow it by trying to slug with the guy. If Steward was training Maccarinelli, he would have not throwing hooks until late in the fight and would make sure that he’s using his jab all the time.
Maccarinelli can’t afford to slug with his opponents. He’s got to focus on only throwing power shots when he’s absolutely certain he won’t get hit in return. He also needs to stop focusing so much on landing to the body of his opponents, because he leaves himself open for getting hit when he’s in close.
I have no doubts that Steward could save Maccarinelli’s career, but he won’t be able to do anything with Maccarinelli training and fighting out of the UK. He would to come over to the U.S. and speak to Steward, but I think Emanuel might take him on as a special project.
He could train with Wladimir and learn how to fight tall. I think Maccarinelli would be great if he could train alongside Klitschko for three months and find out how to protect his glass jaw.
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