BoxRec

'If the fight is over early, then I have to go for Haye. He has phenomenal punching power.

'If Maccarinelli decides to go toe to toe with him, it will be a mistake. He should not let pride get in his way as I did a few times and which led to me having so many wars.

'I saw Haye beat Jean Marc Mormeck and was impressed the way he went about his business.'


'The longer it goes on, then I'd have to switch and favour Maccarinelli.

'He is a good body puncher and softens up opponents with those shots. They both have dynamite in both hands.

'I have seen more of Maccarinelli's fights but they both know what it is like to lose and that feeling will drive them on.

'This is a 50-50 fight. Enzo will try to work the body for seven or eight rounds, trying to slow Haye down. But before he gets that far he could get taken out by a thunderous right hand.

'We know Haye can be hurt because of how Carl Thompson handed him his sole defeat. How will he be if softened up for eight rounds by those body shots?

'Some people have derided Maccarinelli's quality of opponents, but forget that because he definitely knows what to do with people who stand in front of him.

'Whatever happens this is not a make or break fight as they've both lost before and the loser will have to rebuild.'


Great stuff from Nigel. Haye is so similar to him-losing a 100% ko record in an upset,rebuilding,winning world titles abroard,getting up to win,etc.

I thought Nigel was supposed to be locking himself away from all media and boxing after 2007 though?? Great fighter,though ;)

HE ALSO CALLED THEM 'NOVICES' ! SAID THEY ARE STILL AT THE START OF THEIR CAREERS

Since he's retired- Benn is a fool. Hasn't his church got any followers?

I thought Nigel hated boxing now? Seems to watch a lot of fights for someone who doesn't like the game.

People are having a pop at him because he's a Christian? If he stayed the same as when he was our hero, he'd have been dead about 50 times over by now. I'm just glad he's still alive and still clearly a big fan of the game. Would love to see the old Dark Destroyer ringside and one paper says he would be if it was a 9pm kickoff, but he's got peeps to preach to in Majorca Sunday morn. When you think of the domestic tear-ups Benn had - Watson, Eubank x 2, Wharton, Collins x 2, and even bloody Area-standard guys like Kid Milo and Lou Gent he'd have a super exciting see saw scrap with; the King of the domestic tear-up!

But the Cruiserweight division has always been basically empty, and they only have 20 fights, so comparatively to, say, guys who had 50 fights at middle and super-middle in the 80s and 90s, Haye and Macc ARE novices! Neither of them have made multiple defenses or had multiple reigns, for example. You have to compare this more to Benn-Watson than the Benn-Eubank fights, or the Cruiserweight Benn-Wharton.

STP wrote:People are having a pop at him because he's a Christian?

Not at all. I'm having a pop at him for the comments he has made about boxing since his retirement. He's bad mouthed the sport and claimed that he wants nothing to do with and last year he said he was shunning public life to focus on his religious duties. Yet lo and behold everytime a big fight comes around the corner, out rolls Benn with his opinion on the fight.

I'm having a pop at him because he's an idiot.

benn said at a dinner in norwich i think it was last yr that body punches were always worse for him than head punches. he said the left hook/left uppercut eubank hit him with in ther 2nd fight to the abdomen left his stomach bruised, henry wharton busted his kidneys and gerald mcclellan also busted his kidneys. he says those shots were worse than head shots that anthony logan, michael watson and chris eubank in their 1st fight hit him with.

i remember at a 95 press conference he said "roy jones can beat the crap out of my head all he likes, but i aint letting mike mccallum snatch my body!"

i think body punches are under rated and over looked in every fight, esp from the other side of the ropes from guys who have never been in the ring and don't figure pain involved in the fight.

i thought all nige said was "i wouldn't be a boxer again if i had my time over". have you ever been a boxer? how many people actually want to be a boxer, about 000.5%? is this really such a terrible, alienated statement? ? wtf.

IF I LEFT ANOTHER BLIND AND NEAR DEAF, I FEEL A LITTLE DIFF ABOUT BOXING TOO

BUT THE THING IS HE DOES'NT FEEL SO MUCH DIFF ABOUT BOXING IF HE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT THESE FIGHTS, HYPOCRIT

He said he wanted to draw a line under the 'Dark Destroyer character' because all he did was hurt people.

Benn's a legend. And I agree with him, they are still fairly inexperienced. Haye has been gifted by a real lack of quality opponents. Personally, I think Enzo will beat him. Never been convinced of Haye's committment to the sport. 13 fights in four years is poor, an average of just over three a year, as Benn would say he should have been fighting month in month out. Haye's fight frequency is similar to an old pro who is slowing down and picking his fights. The guys only had 20 bloody fights and he's been fighting since 2002.