By Jim Dower: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (41-7, 33 KOs) was too strong for 46-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (62-9, 45 KOs) in knocking him clean out in the 4th round on Saturday night at the VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia.

Maccarinelli knocked Jones down twice in the 4th round. The final knockdown was a right hand to the head that knocked Jones out cold, sending him down face first on the canvas. The fight was halted by referee Ingo Barrabas at 1:59 of the 4th.

Jones never stood a chance in this fight from the opening round. He was too small and too weak for the 6’4″ Maccarinelli, and it was one-way traffic the entire time. Macccarinelli pounded away at Jones Jr. with body and head shots in each round. Jones would occasionally throw a sneaky uppercut, but that was the extent of his offense. He was fighting of the ropes almost the entire time, and it was the perfect setup for Maccarinelli, who does well against fighters that back up against the ropes.

After Jones hit the canvas for the second knockdown, he had his eyes closed for at least a two or three seconds before he finally opened them. Jones looked like he was totally out cold from the right hand that hit him. Maccarinelli put everything he had into that punch, and it’s not surprising that Jones was knocked out. In the past, Jones had been knocked out by smaller fighters than Maccarinelli in Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, Danny Green and Denis Lebedev. Maccarinelli was the tallest and arguably the biggest puncher that Jones had fought before during his career. That’s why I think it was a really bad idea for Jones to have fought him. I could understand the fight if Jones had the punching power to go for a knockout of Maccarinelli like other fighters had done against him, but Jones doesn’t have cruiserweight punching power. Jones doesn’t even have light heavyweight punching power. He’s basically a pumped up middleweight who was never the same when he moved out of the middleweight division.

Maccarinelli was just teeing off on Jones in every round of the fight, as Jones couldn’t or wouldn’t come to the center of the ring to try and fight for some reason. Jones continually backed up to the ropes and let Maccarinelli fight him from that area. I don’t know what the problem was. It looked like Jones didn’t have the leg strength to stand in the middle of the ring. Whenever Jones did stand in the center of the ring, he was able to land some nice shots that would get Maccarinelli’s attention. But instead of staying in the center of the ring, Jones would back up without being pressured to the ropes and lean against the ropes. Jones is a pretty smart fighter, and you would like to think that he had watched some of Maccarinelli’s previous fights to learn that he traditionally has always done well when he’s had an opponent against the ropes. The only exception to that rule was Maccarinelli’s fight against Ola Afolabi.