Enzo Maccarinelli announces retirement following loss to Kucher

Following a first round TKO loss to Dmytro Kucher on Friday in London, Welsh fighter Enzo Maccarinelli announced his retirement from boxing at age 35, taking to Twitter shortly after the fight to say he was hanging up the gloves.

Maccarinelli retires with a record of 41-8 (33 KO), stopped in all eight of his losses, which means that in 49 career fights, only eight of them total went the distance. Maccarinelli went the 12-round distance four times in his career, in fights against Ismail Abdoul (2004), Mark Hobson (2006), Wayne Braithwaite (2007), and Shane McPhilbin (2012). He won all of those bouts.

In 2006, Maccarinelli won the interim WBO cruiserweight title, and was elevated to full champion status not long after, defending that belt against Mark Hobson, Bobby Gunn, Wayne Braithwaite, and Mohamed Azzaoui, leading to a huge 2008 showdown with David Haye, who held the WBC and WBA titles.

When the two met in London at the O2 Arena, fireworks were expected, and were delivered. Haye stopped Maccarinelli in the second round. In 2009, he was stopped by both Ola Afolabi and Denis Lebedev.

He rallied to win a few fights, then beat Alexander Kotlobay for the vacant European title via TKO-1 in 2010, losing it to Alexander Frenkel by knockout in his first defense five months later. Once again, he came back strong, beating Shane McPhilbin for the British cruiserweight title in 2012.

Taking a chance and moving down to light heavyweight, he lost a Commonwealth title bid to Ovill McKenzie in late 2012, but won the title in a rematch the next year. He was battered over five rounds in Germany against WBA titleholder Juergen Braehmer in 2014, then moved back to cruiserweight.

Last December, he went to Moscow and knocked out a washed-up Roy Jones Jr in the fourth round, and was inserted into the fight with Kucher as a late substitute for old rival McKenzie.

There is, of course, the chance that Maccarinelli will fight again, because this is boxing, and retirement announcements are generally about 50-50 as far as actually sticking. He turns 36 in August, so he’s not old old, and if he gets the itch, sure, we could see him again. But for now, he says he’s retired, and if he is, then we wish him all the best after a very entertaining career. You never went into an Enzo fight expecting it to be dull.