Boxing: Big Macc’s message to title rival Haye

Mar 2 2008 Chris Wathan, Wales on Sunday

ENZO Maccarinelli isn’t convinced by David Haye’s claim to be the best around – and isn’t so sure Haye believes it himself.

While Maccarinelli has spent the last three months priming himself in the confines of Enzo Calzaghe’s Newbridge Boxing Club, cocky Cockney Haye has been telling anyone who’ll listen how he will end next weekend’s cruiserweight clash at the O2 Arena inside 60 seconds.

It’s the kind of talk that has become the norm from Haye, his lips loosening by the minute since he beat Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris to take the WBA and WBC belts back to his Bermondsey home.

Immediately after his seventh-round stoppage of the Frenchman, Haye claimed: “I am one of three undisputed world champions – Calzaghe, Hatton and now me.

“Just because you have one title doesn’t mean you are a world champion.”

Haye even claimed he did not need to fight WBO champion Maccarinelli to prove his own statement.

But next weekend, the talking stops.

“He’s said a lot of things, after he beat Mormeck and ever since,” said Maccarinelli, speaking from inside the ring of Calzaghe’s gym after yet another sweat-soaked sparring session that would leave even the onlookers gasping for breath.

“But why has he taken this fight? Does he know, deep down, that he needs to beat me to back up what he said?

“I haven’t slagged him off for what he did against Mormeck. I gave him credit for turning it around.

“You have to – he went to Mormeck’s back yard, got put on his backside, but got up and took the belt.

“But the first question someone asked him when he got out of that ring was, ‘Are you going to fight Enzo?’

“Think about it, the first question after what he’s just done, the first thing someone’s said to him after he’s become a world champion. Everyone knew I was the toughest fight for him out there; deep down he would have known it otherwise he wouldn’t have signed up.

“And the talk since, well, that’s just Haye.

“He’s very good with his mouth. I admire him for that, and he’s come out and said it’ll be over in 60 seconds.

“But what does he expect me to do? Hear that and start quivering?

“Not me, I’m 100 per cent confident.

“He’s said a lot of things about me and the guys I’ve beaten.

“But, I don’t know, perhaps he’s trying to talk himself confidentconfident.”

Whatever Haye’s reasoning, Maccarinelli hasn’t paid much attention to what he’s had to say in recent weeks.

And Big Macc insists there will be no extra venom in his punches as boxing’s publicity machine tries to crank up a hatred between the pair. “Everyone’s trying to make out that me and Haye hate each other,” he added. “I’ve no animosity towards him.

“Every time I’ve spoken face to face with him he’s been respectful to me, I’ve been respectful back, there’s no problem.

“The only issue I have with him is that he’s got something I want... he’s got two somethings I want.

“I haven’t got to gee myself up in any other way.”

Haye has certainly piled pressure on himself with his remarks’s remarks have certainly piled the pressure on himself ahead of histhe biggest fight – the greatest test of his self-proclaimed credentials to be one of the best boxers Britain has produced.

By contrast, Maccarinelli – a bona-fide world champion for two years and five fights – has been inflicting his own pressure, courtesy of a punishing workload.

He maintains he has never worked as hard as he has done for Saturday’s spectacle, which will play out in front of the thousands at ringside and millions tuning in both here and in the US.

Just before settling down to talk – and catch his breath – the Swansea slugger had gone through the final rounds of a three-and-a-half hour programme that could only suggest that trainer Calzaghe enjoys seeing his charges in pain.

“What I’ve been through in the last 12 weeks has just been unbelievable,” admitted Maccarinelli.

“A lot of fighters just do three little sessions a day.

“I’ve been doing three and a half hour sessions.

“And when I say sessions I mean running, weights, bag work, spar work, all in one intensive period.

“I’ve just finished my 15th round of sparring and you saw the punches I was still throwinghitting at the end; that’s on top of everything.”

Admitting he is too tired to even talk on the phone after his day’s work, Maccarinelli still allows himself a smile before his head hits the pillow, knowing he will be in the shape of his life come the clash being dubbed ‘Bombs Away’ by promoter Frank Warren.

While the Welsh warrior keeps things very local, Haye has headed to Miami to get himself in shape and down to the regulation weight he has traditionally struggled with.

“I’ve not really done anything different to what I would do normally before I fight,” Maccarinelli added. “Just the pure intensity of it.

“You see, I’m prepared to leave everything in there. I’m prepared to put everything on the line.

“Ask Haye that question; is he? I don’t know. I know he’s a proud man, that’s why he’s taken this.

“But is he going to be ready to go through what I’ll go through?

“This could be quick, this could be gruelling. That’s why I’m training so hard, that’s the respect I’m given him but he’s going to find me at the top of my game because of that.

“I’ve been waiting for this since the Johnny Nelson fight got pulled because of his injury.

“I signed a year ago for Haye, he agreed terms but it didn’t happen.

“But I knew our paths would crossollide.

“It had to because we’re fighters from the same division, both with titles and both on the top of our game. This is what the sport is all about.

“I know what’s going to happen. I’m not kidding myself or anyone else.

“I won’t be walking in there with my arms down by my side or my chin up in the air, I’m not stupid.

“I know he can punch and I know he can be a good boxer.

“The simple fact is that I believe that I’m better. And I know I will show it.”

London’s calling for Enzo Maccarinelli. And so, it seems, is destiny.