Enzo Maccarinelli ends career

By Boxing News - 06/11/2016 - Comments

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By Jeff Aranow: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (41-8, 33 KOs) announced his retirement on his Twitter on Saturday, a day after suffering a 1st round knockout loss to #9 WBC, #12 WBO cruiserweight contender Dmytro Kucher (24-1, 18 KOs) at York Hall in London, UK. Maccarinelli was attempting to win the vacant European cruiserweight title last Friday night.

Maccarinelli had recently turned things around with his career in beating Roy Jones Jr. by a 4th round knockout last December. Macarinelli’s luck ran out last night against Kucher after getting hurt by a left hand from him late in the 1st round.

Kucher knocked Maccarinelli down with a follow up left to the head that put him down on all fours on the canvas. Maccarinelli did make it back to his feet in time to beat the count, but referee Giuseppe Quartarone stopped the fight at that point.

Maccarinelli’s trainer Gary Lockett was ready to throw in the towel if the referee hadn’t stopped the fight.

It’s still unknown at this point if Maccarinelli will actually retire or not. Many fighters say they’re going to retire and then don’t actually do it. We’ll have to find out. Maccarinelli still has huge punching power, and can be successful against certain fighters.
If you look at the fights that Maccarinelli has lost in the last eight years of his career, he’s been beaten when trying to slug with his opponents in rounds one through nine.

Maccarinelli continued: “Thank you ever so much for all the well wishes guys as you can expect I’m fooking devastated.”

The vast majority of Maccarinelli’s knockouts have come in the first three rounds. It’s possible that Maccarinelli’s game could be changed to be more defensive in the first six rounds so that he gets hit less. In last night’s fight, Maccarinelli was standing directly in front of Kucher in the first round when he was hit hard by a left hook from the Ukrainian fighter and staggered. That wouldn’t have happened if Maccarinelli was jabbing and moving the entire time. Kucher took advantage of a stationary Maccarinelli and hit him with a big left. Maccarinelli and Lockett should have been focusing on movement during the early going, especially given his track record.

Maccarinelli started his career in 1999, and was knocked out for the first time in his fourth fight in losing to Lee Swaby by a third round knockout. Maccarinelli then won his next 17 fights and captured the WBO cruiserweight title in 2006. However, Maccarinelli suffered his second career loss in losing to WBA/WBC cruiserweight champion David Haye in 2008 by a 2nd round knockout. Maccarinelli’s career was never the same after that loss, as he’s suffered six knockout losses since that time in a span of eight years. Maccarinelli’s record since the loss to Haye is 13-6, with all six defeats coming by knockout.

At 35, Maccarinelli, you can understand why he might want to retire, because he’s not as young as many of the top fighters in the cruiserweight division. There are a lot of new talented guys like Murat Gassiev and Oleksandr Usyk that are moving up. Maccarinelli would have a potentially difficult time trying to compete with these younger lions for him to be able to succeed if he were to continue fighting.