Enzo Maccarinelli scored a brutal fourth round stoppage of Roy Jones Jr at the VTB Arena in Moscow last night.
For Roy Jones, it’s the 5th stoppage loss of his career, dropping his overall ledger to 62-9. The former pound for pound kingpin turns 47 years old this January. It’s well past due for him to hang up the gloves for good. Please, let this be it for Jones.
It’s incredibly sad to witness him dropping down to the canvas in such a fashion yet again. His retirement should have, and could have, come after one of his now many previous stoppage defeats. But he kept pressing on. Over the past few years, he stuck to fighting no hopers and was able to build up a winning streak of sorts. Maccarinelli put a swift end to that.
Roy – hang up the gloves. Stick to calling the action from the safety of ringside.
Now, more on the fight itself…
Welshman Maccarinelli, a former WBO Cruiserweight Champion, landed a devastating right hand to finish off the former five-time world champion leaving him crumpled on the canvas with the referee waving the fight off.
Maccarinelli respectfully held off celebrating in the ring while Jones recovered his senses and got to his feet, but the Swansea puncher was thrilled with his victory and says he still wants to become a two-time world champion next year.
Here’s what Maccarinelli had to say:
“First of all I’d like to say it was an honor to share the ring with Roy who in my eyes is still a ring legend and I hope that he recovers fully from this.
“Regarding my win, I’m over the moon with the performance and it showed that I’ve got the power to hurt anybody. This fight was at cruiserweight where I’ve held a world and I’ve also dropped down to light-heavyweight where I fought Juergen Braehmer for a world title, I’m comfortable at either and wherever the best opportunities are I’ll take them.
“I said before the fight that I fight best when the pressure is on and coming out to Russia where Roy has become a favorite certainly put the pressure on me to perform and I did that.
“I knew that the opening rounds might be a bit cagey, but I knew that once I sized him up and got my range that it was only a matter of time before I would take him out. My jab was good and I clipped Roy with a right hand early on which he brushed off but I knew that it hurt him. Then in the fourth I started to connect with uppercuts and he was starting to go so I knew I’d got him and then I landed the hard right to finish him off.
“That ends the year nicely and now I want to keep busy in 2016 and get another world title shot to become a two-time world champion.”
