by James Slater: In what is great news for former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli, promoter Frank Warren successfully won the purse bids for the fight between the former champ and the unbeaten American from Detroit, Jonathon Banks. This means the bout will take place in the U.K – at a venue and date to be confirmed..
The 27-year-old Welshman is very happy at how his promoter has come through for him once again, and will be confident he can beat Banks, even more so now that the fight for the vacant belt will take place on home soil.
“Frank Warren has delivered for me again, and I can’t wait to get back into action and win my title back,” Maccarinelli is reported as saying on FightNews.com. “The loss to [David] Haye was hard to swallow because I know I could have done better but that is in the past and I’m focused on getting back to winning ways again. Banks is supposed to be the next big thing in America, but I’ll cut him down to size.”
Will he though? Banks, though he looked decidedly average last time out when labouring to out-point Italian Vincenzo Rossitto, is an unbeaten and talented fighter after all. Trained by Kronk legend Emanuel Steward, the 26-year-old has looked better than that in the past. Not a huge puncher like Maccarinelli, Banks is a smooth boxer with a good jab. His stamina didn’t look too great in his majority win over Rossitto, what with the 20-0(14) fighter being dead tired and blowing in the later rounds, but maybe we can put that fight down to a bad day at the office for Banks.
On paper, it will be hard not to make the big-punching Welshman the favourite going into their fight, but we do not know how Maccarinelli will be affected in his first fight back since being blown away by Haye. Will he come in gun-shy? Will Macca begin to suffer flashbacks as soon as Banks opens up on him? Would a tune-up bout have been a good idea, instead of going straight back into a world title fight? Questions like this will only be answered when the bell rings and the fight starts.
The clash of styles should bring about a decent, if not great, fight. Maccarinelli always comes out looking for the KO and he will be anxious to redeem himself after what happened to him in March. While smart boxer Banks will be doing everything in his power to avoid being taken out, while at the same time keeping his unbeaten record.
Two consecutive losses would very possibly ruin Maccarinelli. While winning his first world title would mark the arrival on the big stage for Banks. As such, the stakes will be pretty high come fight night. Wherever and whenever fight night is exactly.