By Mark Vester
Enzo Maccarinelli, the WBO cruiserweight champion, has called David Haye a delusional fighter. Macca will try to unify the division when challenges Haye for his WBA/WBC titles on March 8 at London's O2 Arena. Recently Haye told BBC Inside Sports that he would knock Macca out in less then a minute of the first round.
Haye thinks Macca is underestimating his chin, but he will find out the truth once the bell rings.
"He probably saw me get knocked down against Mormeck and thought, 'OK, if Mormeck can knock him down, how about Enzo? Enzo's got a bigger punch and maybe Haye won't get up'. But Enzo has got nothing that I haven't been in the ring with before and he's going to need to learn a whole new skill set if he's going to get through the first couple of rounds," Haye said.
"I need him in the ring because I need to knock him out and shut a few people up who think they know about boxing. I'm a better human specimen than Enzo Maccarinelli is and that becomes so clear as soon as that bell goes."
Macca said that Haye is out of his mind to think he would win in less than a minute of the first. He also doesn't agree with Haye's claim of being in the ring with better competition.
"I totally disagree with him saying he has mixed in better company than me," said Maccarinelli. "All right, he beat [former WBC and WBA champion] Jean-Marc Mormeck and he fought [former WBO champion] Carl Thompson, who beat him. But there are no other names that stand out on his record apart from [former IBF champion] Arthur Williams, who was 44 and took the fight at a week's notice," Macca.
"I boxed Bruce Scott in my 15th fight, a two-time world title challenger and a massive puncher. I've boxed Mark Hobson, the British and Commonwealth champion, Wayne Braithwaite, a former WBC champion, Marcelo Dominguez, a former WBC champion. I feel strong and everything has gone right. The intensity has gone up a notch and I'm more motivated than I've ever been for this one.
"It was a fight I'd been talking about for a long time and our paths couldn't have crossed at a better time, what with us both being world champions. Me and David both have similar styles, we both like to knock the other person out, but I've prepared for 12 gruelling rounds. If I go into the fight expecting three or four rounds and it doesn't happen, then I'm knackered."
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