By William Mackay: Enzo Maccarinelli (35-5, 27 KO’s) realized his dream ambition to win the British cruiserweight domestic level strap on Friday night against champion Shane McPhilbin (8-3, 5 KO’s) with a 12 round unanimous decision win a the Civic Hall in Wolverhapton, West Midlands, UK. The fight had a highly controversial early end to the 1st round where the times keeper stopped the round 47 seconds early just after Maccarinelli had been badly hurt and floored by a big left hook from McPhilin.

Maccarinelli looked out on his feet as he got back up, but to his good luck the times keeper chose that moment to halt the round a full 47 seconds a head of time. As bad as Maccarinelli looked, it’s highly doubtful he would have been able to survive the remaining 47 seconds of the round without hitting the canvas once or twice more. The times keeper made a HUGE blunder that clearly played in Maccarinelli’s favor in a big way.

There obviously is going to be a full investigation by the British Boxing Board of Control, and it’s probably going to mean a rematch will need to happen between Maccarinelli and McPhilbin to try and iron out the controversy. However, I don’t know that McPhilbin will be able to reproduce that knockdown in a rematch, because he caught Maccarinelli cold in the 1st round and in a rematch, Maccarinelli will likely play it safe by boxing McPhilin in the early part of the fight until he gasses out like he did on Friday night. McPhilbin’s stamina was horrible.

Maccarinelli’s weak chin showed itself again, this time in the 3rd round when he was put down by a 1-2 combination by McPhilbin. Again, it looked like curtains for Maccarinelli. However, he stood his ground and hurt McPhilin with a combination to the head and appeared to knock him down twice only to have the knockdowns waived off by the referee.

The fight settled into a dull pattern from the 4th with Maccarinelli dominating an out of his league and now tiring McPhilin with his jab, body work and combinations.

In the 9th round, it was Maccarinelli’s turn to score a knockdown when he put McPhilbin down with a nice left-fight combination. McPhilbin was up immediately and none to happy about it.

Maccarinelli dominated the remaining three rounds with his jabs and body work. McPhilbin was exhausted at this point and fought like he was 100 years old. It wasn’t pretty.

At the end of the day, Maccarinelli got his British cruiserweight title that he’s always wanted but it came at a price due to his two knockdowns he suffered and because of the early end to the 1st round. You have to say that this was more of a loss than a win for the 31-year-old Maccarinelli because he was supposed to breeze through this fight with no problems and yet here he was on the verge of being knocked out and was arguably saved by the times keeper mistakenly ending the 1st round prematurely. Maccarinelli almost has to give McPhilbin a rematch at this point even if he doesn’t want to. It’s disappointing because Maccarinelli obviously wanted to move forward towards world class fights, and yet here he is getting mired down at the domestic level with McPhilin. Maccarinelli would like to get a fight against WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in 2012, but how can he make a case to where he deserves a shot against Cleverly if he can’t even beat the likes of McPhilin?