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Maccarinelli won't back down from Haye

Thomas Gerbasi/Maxboxing.com

At this point in the build-up to his Saturday unification bout (Showtime 9pm ET/ PT) with David Haye, WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli has pretty much heard it all when it comes to the “Hayemaker”.

He’s heard Haye talking about his intended leap to heavyweight after this fight, he’s heard the speculation about Haye’s training and whether making weight will be an issue, and he’s heard the media talking incessantly about the power of the charismatic Londoner.

None of it affects the Welshman though; he knows that he has a fight this weekend, one he intends to win.

“I’m not bothered by what he says, what he does, or how he’s training,” Maccarinelli told MaxBoxing last week. “All I know is that I’m prepared for everything. I’m going to set a fast pace and if it goes 12 I’m going to be throwing as many punches in the 12th round as I am in the first.”

In other words, Maccarinelli’s going to fight his fight, the way he has 29 times before, emerging victorious in 28 of those outings with 21 knockouts to his name. He may not be the one punch knockout artist Haye is, but he’s a punishing puncher, one who can leave you in a vastly different state than the one you were in before the first bell rang.

And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so he’s not planning on boxing for the first half of the fight in order to see if Haye’s stamina will give out like many pundits have suggested, and he’s not going to run out of his corner haphazardly in an attempt to gain instant respect from his opponent by making a reckless statement. What will we see on Saturday then? He doesn’t even know yet.

“A fight’s a fight,” said Maccarinelli. “I’m a boxing fan, first and foremost, and you see fighters who have Gameplan A or Gameplan B, and when neither of them work, they’re a lost cause. I have a basic idea of what he’s gonna do and what I’m gonna do, but like Joe Calzaghe, I’m an adaptive fighter and I’ll work with what I’m given on the night.”

Or on the morning as the case may be, as both cruiserweight standouts will be entering the ring at around 2am local time to accommodate US television. It’s not an issue for the Swansea native, who has been working progressively later in order to get acclimated to the late start of the fight, but as he said “being up at 3 or 4 in the morning is nothing to me.”

Of course it must be noted that the first time Maccarinelli fought at such a late hour, on the Calzaghe-Jeff Lacy undercard in March of 2006, he had one of his worst performances as a pro as he struggled to a razor-thin decision win over Mark Hobson. The 27-year old admits that he wasn’t at his best, but that he learned from the experience.

“I was feeling fine,” said Maccarinelli of fighting on a card which started past the usual hour in order for Calzaghe vs Lacy to be aired in prime time in the States. “I think I just underestimated Mark, who’s a good fighter. He taught me a lot.”

And there were extenuating circumstances as well, as Maccarinelli admits that he “was literally training on my own, hitting the bag on my own, and keeping my own time,” due to the illness of his former trainer Charlie Pearson, who was ill and who retired in May of 2006.

“I was only seeing my trainer once a week,” said Maccarinelli, who, after the retirement of Pearson, enlisted Enzo Calzaghe as his new trainer.

“The Hobson fight opened up my eyes,” he said, and since then, Maccarinelli has opened up his game and the results have been impressive, starting with his ninth round stoppage of Marcelo Dominguez in July of 2006, a win that not only netted him the interim WBO title, it marked him as the only fighter to stop the veteran Argentinean.

“Against Marcelo Dominguez I could have gotten on my toes and jabbed my way to a win,” said Maccarinelli, “but I wanted to be the first to knock him out. I stand and trade – that’s what the public wants.”

Maccarinelli went on to stop Hobson in a single round in their rematch, and after a gimme against American Bobby Gunn last April, he may have scored his most impressive win as a pro when he nearly shut out former world champion Wayne Braithwaite in July.

“For me personally it done nothing,” he said. “But it did get me a bigger reputation.”

It didn’t look like it would get him a big fight though. A clash with longtime champion Johnny Nelson was an enticing prospect for years, but Nelson’s 2006 retirement ended that dream, and after Haye stopped Jean-Marc Mormeck last November, it was expected that he would jump immediately to heavyweight. But money and a little magic from promoter Frank Warren gave Maccarinelli the career-defining bout he’s been longing for.

“The Johnny Nelson situation let me down a bit, but I had a funny feeling that this one was gonna happen,” said Maccarinelli. “Frank Warren paid a lot of money for this fight to happen, and it was a late Christmas present.”

Now he’s eager to tear the wrapping off that present on Saturday night and take his place alongside his stablemate Calzaghe as the UK’s two finest fighters. He’s ready.

“Though I’ve done things on Joe’s coattails, I knew there would be a time when I’d be out in the spotlight on my own,” he said. “That’s what makes this fight exciting. So expect a fighter who comes to fight. I’m not backing down.”