By Mark Vester
At the MEN Arena in Manchester, Ola Afolabi (14-1-3, 6KOs) knocked out Enzo Maccarinelli (29-3, 22KOs) in the ninth round to capture the interim-WBO cruiserweight title.
Ola came out jabbing to the head and body. Enzo returned fire in the final minute with some power shots. In the second, Ola was slipping a lot of Enzo's punches but offered little in return for the first two minutes. He began to rally and stand his ground in the final minute, exchanging bug punches with Enzo. In the third, the round was going slow until the final ten seconds when Ola got Enzo in trouble with a hard right hand. Enzo hung on to Ola while the clock ran out to close the round.
At the start of the fourth, Ola began to dig to the body. Enzo appeared to still be shaken from the third. Ole kept hitting Enzo with straight punches down the pipe. Enzo tried to fire back with some hard counters as Ola taunted him to keep throwing punches. Enzo got himself together in the fifth. He began to land accurate punches to the head and body.
Enzo continued to land good punches during the sixth. He kept backing Ola against the ropes and just letting his hands go. The same patterin followed in the seventh and eight rounds. During the ninth, Enzo appeared to be very tired and ready to go. Ola landed a monster right hand out of nowhere and Enzo crashed down on his back. He almost went down for the full count, made it up on very unsteady legs and the fight was stopped.
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