'Bombs Away' and Loss of Title
Maccarinelli's next fight was an all-British unification fight against the WBA/WBC champion David Haye. The fight took place on 8 March 2008 at the O2 Arena, London and was much hyped in the weeks running up to the event, being given the tagline "bombs away" (referring to the high KO percentages and punching power both men boasted). Maccarinelli lost the fight and his WBO belt when he was knocked out in the 2nd round. A right hand by Haye knocked Maccarinelli down towards the end of the round and although he was able to get back up it was on unsteady legs and the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
After the fight Haye announced that he would be moving up to the heavyweight division with immediate effect and would therefore be vacating his newly won belts. Because of this Maccarinelli received an immediate opportunity to reclaim his WBO belt in a matchup against undefeated American Jonathon Banks for the now vacant championship, but due to injury Banks was forced to pull out. After several replacements were unable to fight, Maccarinelli instead stepped up to heavyweight to face Matthew Ellis. Maccarinelli won after a 2nd round KO in what was his debut at the higher weight. After the fight Frank Warren announced that Maccarinelli would face Banks in a re-scheduled bout for the WBO belt during February 2009.
Once again the Banks fight proved to be a non starter (Banks opted to make an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to win the IBF cruiserweight title against Tomasz Adamek) and instead Maccarinelli's next fight was against the American based Londoner Ola Afolabi for the "interim" WBO title. The fight took place on March 14 at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs Marco Antonio Barrera bout. Maccarinelli was favoured by most observers to win, however things did not go as expected as Maccarinelli struggled in the early rounds and was staggered in the 3rd round by a short chopping right hand from the slick Afolabi. Despite managing to recover and win the majority of the next few rounds he was knocked out by Afolabi in round 9 when a huge overhand right put him on the canvas and forced the referee to call off the fight.
Read more about this topic: Enzo Maccarinelli
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