Boxing

Maccarinelli stops Scott!

By G L Taylor

29.06 - Swansea’s Enzo Maccarinelli came back from the brink of defeat at the Cardiff International arena to record his biggest career win to-date after an explosive and perfectly delivered left hand knocked out former British and Commonwealth Champion Bruce Scott towards the end of the fourth round of their exciting and action-packed contest which provided the chief support to WBO super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe’s title defence against Byron Mitchell.

In terms of experience, the 22 year-old Maccarinelli (who moves to 15-1) was heavily outweighed by Hackney’s Scott, but having secured victory, he has shown that he is a threat at this level and has power that can probably trouble most in the division.

Things looked so different early on though, as the Welshman struggled to get any real offence going in the first round, as his London-based opponent got off to the far more impressive start.

Despite giving away a sizeable height and reach advantage to his younger opponent, Scott (who at 33 is 11 years older than Maccarinelli and was coming off of almost two years of inactivity as a result of a serious Achilles tendon injury) was able to establish a jab first, seeing opening’s in Maccarinelli’s defence and getting close enough to be able to land reasonably freely.

The glaring holes in Maccarinelli’s defensive work were there for all to see after just a minute had passed in the opening round, when a swinging, almost wild roundhouse right-hand from Scott caught him on the side of the head and sent him crashing to the mat.

An unsteady Maccarinelli though, made it up, but didn’t look at all comfortable as Scott tried to look for the finish, though he showed determination and real strength of character to hang in the fight at this stage, and even manage to launch a stiff right about a minute after picking himself up, to earn some respite.

As Scott continued to maraud forward, looking to finish it, the Swansea fighter finally managed to begin flicking his jab out in order to keep Scott at bay and at least survive the fight opener.

However, at this stage in the fight, most would have to have considered Scott the favourite as the gaps in Maccarinelli’s defence were very worrying and the consensus was that the wily and experienced Scott would have no trouble exploiting them again.

The interval between rounds though seemed to largely do the job of allowing Maccarinelli’s head to clear and when he came out for the second round, it was immediately clear that the plan from here on out was to use the jab a lot more, and to use that to work the openings.

Scott still started the brighter though, initiating a body attack, and dispelled any fears that there may have been regarding ring rust after his enforced time away from the ring. However it was when he tried to get his jab going again that the younger man brought his own into play. It was immediately clear then that this was a potent weapon, as Scott was unable to tag him as easily with shots due to the fact he was finding the long arms of the challenger somewhat more difficult to negotiate in this round.

The Welsh fighter did also appear to have improved his general defence and blocking of shots too, and while it was by no means watertight, there was a marked improvement from the previous round. The improvement in Maccarinelli continued up to the end of the round as he jabbed more and more often, and was landing cleanly with it.

An exchange of jabs opened up round three with Maccarinelli looking a little uncomfortable in the opening 30 seconds, as Scott launches two hard left hooks which he does well to block.

As in round two though, Scott is feeling the jab of his opponent more and more, and after a couple of these find their target, Maccrinelli follows through with a hard right that caused Scott to stagger badly and have to cover up and hold after Maccarinelli manages to trap him in the corner and fire off combinations of lefts and rights that leave the former WBO and WBC world title challenger reeling.

After this major success, Maccarinelli can be seen to have grown in confidence, and his jab had added snap as it thudded home with increasing accuracy against a dogged and purposeful Scott, who continued to stalk his opponent and refused to take a backward step.

As the round closes, it appears that having been on the verge of defeat in the first, Maccarinelli has turned things around, as he is now bringing the right hand into play more and more often behind the ever-more-effective left jab.

The fourth round is that which turned out to be the last, as despite an early combination of body punches from Scott, Maccarinelli seems to be dictating proceedings with a gradually increasing authority from behind his jab, buckling the legs of Scott as he did in the third, with a crashing right hand.

Scott actually seemed to be having more success towards the body when the end came, but was knocked out coldly by a wonderful shot from the younger man, which was the culmination of a well-executed left-right-left combination.

Maccarinelli’s jab glanced Scott’s head, and the follow-up right hand didn’t connect at all, but by this time, the Welshman’s combinations were quite fluid, and Scott looked as though he didn’t even see the devastating left hook that was already on it’s way, before it connected and caused the referee to stop the fight without even reaching his ten count.

The impact had sent Scott sprawling, and his head seemed to hit a combination of the ring apron and the bottom rope, as he lay there frighteningly still for a moment or so after the fights’ end.
Thankfully, after receiving oxygen in the ring and being attended to by a doctor, Scott seemed to be okay, and was up and moving as Maccarinelli celebrated his victory.

After the fight, Maccarinelli described his triumph as ‘the proudest moment of my life’, and he has every reason to feel proud tonight, as very few men have dealt with Bruce Scott as ruthlessly before.

As for Scott himself (who drops to 25-7), it is hard to see where he can go from here, in terms of winning major titles, as staying around the domestic scene may be realistic, but whether there are any big-money fights out there for him at that level is quite debatable.

There’s also the question of what being knocked out so coldly will do to his mental state should he enter the ring again, and whether he risks being hurt seriously if he steps in with a hard puncher, as he did seem to be taking more and more shots with each passing round in this battle.

Perhaps his place in the scheme of things has now been taken by Maccarinelli, who at 22 can still develop and improve sufficiently to be a star in a division that is somewhat devoid of them at the moment.

He has an exciting style, is a knockout puncher and is exciting to watch, so on paper at least, he could do very well just fighting on the British and perhaps European scene.

However, if he has ambitions to face the top European and world level fighters, he needs to concentrate on tightening his defence and tucking his chin in a bit more, as that his definitely his major weakness, and, if, as he has shown, he can be put down fighting at the level he is currently at, then in all likelihood he will be put down and out, when he faces higher calibre opposition.

All these things though, can be looked at in the future, for tonight and the present; it is time for Enzo Maccarinelli to celebrate his career best victory and to look forward to what the future holds.

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