By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Russian Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO’s) made easy work of WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) in four brutal rounds on Saturday night to capture Cleverly’s WBO 175 lb. strap at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. Kovalev dropped Cleverly three times in the fight; twice in the 3rd round and once in the 4th. The fight should have been stopped in the 3rd round because Cleverly was badly hurt and going up and down on the canvas like a yo-yo.

Stephen Smith (17-1, 10 KO’s) knocked BBBofC British super featherweight champion Gary Buckland (27-3, 9 KO’s) out cold with a big left uppercut to the head in the 5th round that put Buckland down face first on the canvas. Buckland was getting to Smith with his pressure at the time he ran into Smith’s left uppercut.

Buckland looked like the bigger fighter in the ring, and was unrelenting with his pressure. Had Smith not stopped Buckland with that left uppercut, I think Buckland would have gotten to him.

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In a surprise result, Enzo Maccarinelli (37-6, 29 KO’s) was able to take an enormous amount of punishment from the better conditioned Commonwealth light heavyweight champion Ovill McKenzie (21-12, 10 KO’s) to get get an 11th round TKO win. I thought Maccarinelli was a goner after getting hurt in the 7th, but he hung on and was able to come back to get the stoppage.

Maccarinelli, 32, put McKenzie out on his feet with a big left uppercut to the head in the 11th round that caused McKenzie lean forward while completely out of it. Maccarinelli then got in one free shot to the shoulder area before the referee jumped in between them and halted the fight at 2:44 of the round.

With this win, Maccarinelli avenges his previous controversial 2nd round TKO loss to McKenzie from last November, and he also salvages his career. A loss to McKenzie tonight would have pretty much signaled the end of Maccarinelli’s career.

I was frankly surprised that Maccarinelli was still in the position to win the fight by the 11th round, because he had been hurt at least three separate times in the fight, and he’d taken an enormous amount of punishment from McKenzie.

There was nothing wrong with Maccarinelli’s power in the fight. He was clearly the harder puncher from the get go. But the main problem was he was wasting a lot of time going to the head of McKenzie when he would have been better off focusing to the body. I thought Maccarinelli could have won the fight a lot earlier if he had just thrown nothing but body shots because those punches seemed to really bother McKenzie each time Maccarinelli would land with hard body shots.

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Other boxing action on the card:

Courtney Richards pts 4 Danni Griffiths