BoxRec

He dominated a world class fighter (albeit past his peak) on terrestrial TV. Not ITV4, but ITV1. He was powerful and showed poise. Exciting without being reckless and a knockdown, lop sided points win as proof.

He's in a division filled with absolute hard nuts, albeit raw, unrefined, hardly classy hard nuts. With that size and developing skills, he looks a real force.

Okay, who should he fight, who would we like to see him fight, who's he likely to fight, and how will he fit in the cruiser landscape.

Is Enzo part of the Setanta deal or part of the ITV deal?

I'd like to see him in with Tomasz Adamek - credible fighter, exciting style (won 2x fights of the year vs Paul Briggs), defensive lapses, pedigree (WBC light heavyweight reign) and handicapping on Enzo's side - Adamek's not a natural cruiser.

Cunningham - not too keen on this. He's a very unattractive style. Beatable IMO, but I'd wait for him to get dehtroned which won't be too long.

Haye - perfect fight if Haye beats Mormeck - Haye struggles to make 200 and Enzo came in very light last night. A long fight favours the Welshman by far.

After this performance i would favour Macarinelli over Haye and i have always previously backed Haye. Macarinelli showed an impressive workrate, can any Cruiser cope unless they are in prime condition? Braithwaite must have had some solid conditioning to stick with it, fair play to him.

As for next well...capitilise on his peak form and make a unification. Enough Bobby Gunn's we want the big ones from now on. Enzo showed he can compete with the elite and his "bad chin" seems further away now.

If he's fighting on the Calzaghe-Kessler undercard, there probably won't be enough money to go round for a good opponent, nor will HBO show any interest as they haven't showcased cruisers since probably Toney-Jirov.

Cantatore would be really boring. Is he going to be the mandatory? If so maybe it'd be good to get him out of the way.

One good thing is that while a lot of world class cruisers fight in America, they don't make much money and are easy targets to pay to come over here.

Good to see Enzo coming into his own, as it was easy to diss him for the Lamontagne, Heinechen and Gunn fights when other, less able fighters were doing the stepping up (i.e. Huck).

A unification fight against Cunningham shouldn't be too hard to make. I see the point about a "name" opponent maybe being unlikely because of the main event, but let's fact it, the cruisers aren't exactly earning huge money, and Cunningham has gone to Poland before (where I doubt he was paid all that well.)

The only other decent option would be Cantatore, which is a bit boring really. Most other available opponents would probably be too high-risk-low-reward for this kind of event.

Very good performance from Enzo, and I think the win at the weekend has established him on the world scene.

It seems likely that it will be Cunningham and that would be great - I still fancy Enzo has more in his locker and at 26 he has a big future in the sport.

I would love to see the returning Vassily Jirov attack that body..could be quality

Yeah, Jirov being a name with nowhere to really go who whould jump at the chance. It'd be very interesting though obviously not "career-defining" stuff.

Surely it must be Cunningham in November if they can make it. As that would give Enzo two belts, if Haye beats Mormeck, he has the other two we could have the first unified for god knows how long all 4 belts on the line.

It has to happen early next year because of Haye's weight problems so if they wait around for Cunningham to get another fight it ain't gonna happen and surely that is the only way Haye would stay around.

Even with weight problems he would love the idea of holding all 4 belts and relingquishing them to move up to heavy, would imagine it would push his market value through the roof as well, that having been said it would do the same for Enzo but presume he may stay around the Cruiser scene for a couple of defences as he makes the weight so well.

ALL 4 BELTS - 2 BRITISH FIGHTERS - FILLS SOMEWHERE - Promoters dream.

It is in theory only 2 fights away.

I think Cunningham would have to wait. Steve surely has a mandatory coming up after Huck beat Tokarev for the eliminator.

Cunningham would I believe need paying more than Braithwaite. OK I know he's a guy who fights abroad (Rothmann in SA, Wlod in Poland twice) and unfashionable. But he's got a title of his own. I think he might be an ageing fighter, and could lose his title to Huck say in Germany.

If Huck winds up champion, that would be a gimme because Huck is very raw.

As to Haye, team Enzo would want this more than ever if Haye beats JMM, because Haye can barely make cruiser - he always whines about it. Macca's the taller man and he can come 6 lbs inside the limit and still fight a good pace for 12 rds.

They'd want some kind of US money for Macca-Cunn, which would DOUBTFUL come from HBO, who seem poised to pick up Calzaghe-Kessler. It's more of a Showtime fight. As such, a fight for a different day.

if its a voluntary defense can it be anyone out of the top 15 of the WBO rankings?
Only a certain Rob Calloway is now No15, i can see Warren trying to get him as an easy one

I think Jirov is a great idea. He's a big name at the weight and he's just returned after an unsuccessful stint at HW.

I see that his 2 fights back at CW have been in Idaho & North Dakota against non-descript opponents so he's obviously coming back at a lower level and wouldn't be hard to tempt over for a payday. I haven't seen much of him recently but i'm sure he must be a diminished force.

Also if Haye beats Mormeck, Enzo will get more reflected attention as a world class rival from the same country. A Jirov win would make the bout between them that much bigger. Also if Haye loses it could elevate him above Haye (rightly or wrongly).

So let's have it in November

Hi gents,

I'm gonna beat the same old drum on people in this position: I think the best thing Macca can do is stay busy, making 4 or 5 defences a year. I reckion he should fight twice more before the end of the year against any decent names he can get in the ring with him, and set himself up so that Haye/Mormeck/Cunningham CANNOT ignore him.



best wishes

"T.M.K"

Calzaghe- Kessler

Macca-Jirov

Rees-Kotelnik

Not too bad a bill that

The logical step would be for Macca to fight the winner of Haye-Mormeck. If he wants a fight before then, Cunningham would be the best opponent. Would like to see Macca move up to heavyweight eventually, hed do some damage in a crap division, as would Haye

I think Macca does better at cruiser than Haye. And that Haye does better than Macca at heavy. Macca can make a fight easy (ish) on the jab and basics - using his size. Macca however did struggle 1st fight with Hobson - a taller guy. That makes me think heavyweights would be too much for the Welshman.

what about Huck or Aurino? as a keep busy till Haye/Mormeck or Cunningham is ready to go?

Looks like Aurino shied away from world class. He backed out of some kind of WBC elim a while back. Ended up in with Huck for a portion of the European belt and ran out of the ring after a few rough tactics from Huck - haha.

believe Huck will enforce that IBF shot that Cunningham owes him. Not sure how he wins but I'll bet he finds a way, especially if it's in Germany. Huck can be hideous to fight and in fight one, Cunningham fought down to Wlodarczyk.

That way, Huck would be a novice sort of champ, the type to gun for if I was Macca.

Been looking on the WBO website and it says Macca-Cunningham unification could be on Nov 3, on Calzaghe-Kessler undercard. Cunningham says he'll go abroad, King sounds like he's up for it.

I didn't expect this - I figured with a great main event you get below par undercard and the next big fight waits another year. Looks like I COULD be wrong.

Autobarn wrote:Been looking on the WBO website and it says Macca-Cunningham unification could be on Nov 3, on Calzaghe-Kessler undercard.

That would just be fantastic, and we could end-up with 2 duel-title holders at Cruiser (bit like formerly at 12st) simultaneously. If Enzo can get a unification then he should drop any other plans and go for it.

He is 26 years old, there's a good 4 or 5 years to unify the 4 versions - get in a dozen-or-so defences, and then step-up to Heavyweight. We've only ever had 2 men get into double-figures with Cruiser defences (Gomez WBC, Nelson WBO) so he'd be in a prime position to leave a serious legacy at Cruiser.

If unification doesn't happen then I'd keep him busy with any decent names, 4 fights a year at least: Jirov, Hill, Huck, Aurino, Gurov, Bell.....

best wishes

"T.M.K"

I'm really rooting for Macca now. Have to credit Warren. It's been slow, but he's moved him at the right pace and with added pressure to deliver fights, and hopefulyl Cunningham coming up, this is looking like good stuff.

Here are some guys I'd like to see him in with - Darnell Wilson, O'Neil Bell. Raw powerful hard cases lacking in real skills.