It’s been a month of mixed fortunes for our small but proud boxing nation. Kicking off with the good news, Cardiff based fly weight Andrew Selby has secured his place in the Great Britain Olympic squad after Khalid Yafai failed to make the weight for the second fight of their box-off at York Hall on the 12th November. Selby, 22, boxed to a convincing decision in their first bout, winning by 22 points to 12 after sending his rival to the canvas. The young Welshman was delighted with the win but admitted after the contest that the reality of gaining his place had not yet kicked in.
Elsewhere the much anticipated comeback of former Cruiserweight world champion Enzo Maccarinelli finally occured on Friday night at the York Hall. ‘Big Mac’ made his debut at Light Heavyweight against undefeated Pole Gyorgy Marosi whom he blew away in one minute thirty one seconds of the first round. Enzo boxed well in the opening round not allowing his opponent to gain momentum, his jab looked particularly sharp as did his left hook. It was the hook that caught Marosi on the temple and had him wobbled, the referee stepped in and the fight was stopped. A somewhat premature stoppage but it was obvious what the outcome of the fight was going to be. We cannot tell much about Enzo’s punch resistance or stamina at his new weight from that performance however it was a great confidence building fight against an undefeated boxer. The big questions will be answered when Maccarinelli faces some of the divisions hard hitters such as Tony Bellew or Ovil Mackenzie, then we will see if all roads do lead to an all Welsh ‘superfight’ between himself and Nathan Cleverly. This is something I would love to witness although there are a lot of potential banana skins between now and then.
Welsh boxing did however suffer a minor set back last Friday in Halifax, as Pontypool Light Heavyweight Jeff Evans was unsuccessful in his bid to capture the vacant commonwealth title against knockout artist Ovil Mackenzie. Evans was overwhelmed in just 15 seconds of the first round and knocked out cold by Mackenzie who refused to give his opponent a chance to establish himself. It was disappointing for Jeff who is a real young talent, however I think that with the guidance of trainer Gary Lockett he can come back from this defeat and learn from the experience. As Amir Khan has proven, one knockout loss is most definately not the end of the road, I hope to see Jeff move on to bigger and better things in the future.
Leave a Reply