Enzo Maccarinelli – a power puncher who won a world title – but still supports amateur boxing today!

 
It is fair to say that Enzo Macarinellli is the sort of feller that when he walks into a room you notice because he is 6 feet 4 inches tall and still looks very fit, despite being  45 years of age - and he is also a larger than life character in terms of his sporting success because as a professional boxer he had 49 bouts, winning 41 of them, with an amazing record of 33 KOs as proof of his punching power.
 
And to say I was impressed, when he walked into an amateur boxing show where I was MC,  was something of an understatement because he literally lit up the room by his presence.
 
Enzo breezed into the changing room where all the boxers were getting changed, waiting to see the doctor and talking to their trainers - and Enzo was one of the adults charged with looking after the youngsters from Bonymaen ABC, where he had started out as a nipper (but more of that later).
 
He actually went to every boxer there, shook hands with them and wished them luck for the evening - and when some later learned that he had been a World Champion they were a little over-awed but clearly thrilled.
 
Enzo has the ability to make everyone he meets feel important and he certainly had that effect on me because I knew about his impressive record and it was a thrill to have a short chat to him on a one-to-one basis.
 

Boxing is in Enzo’s blood

 
That Enzo should be a boxer was perhaps inevitable because his father Mario had arrived in this country  from the Lake Garda area of Italy. He had been a champion in the Italian Army and continued to box in Swansea - and became owner of Bonymaen ABC in 1985, where his son set out as a ten year old and immediately impressed with his punching power.                                                                                                                          
 
In his time in junior and youth boxing he won NINE titles before becoming a pro boxer and causing mayhem in the Cruiserweight Division of the pro game as he won the WBO version of the title and eventually defended it seven times.                                                                                                                                     
 
He was also  European and British Champion from 2010 to 2012 and Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight Champion in 2013, and finally retired in 2016 with just eight losses - and a place in the pantheon of great British boxers in the heavier divisions.
 
Since then, he has returned to coaching at Bonymaen ABC and is still held in huge regard across amateur boxing clubs in Wales and further afield - and I will never forget the look on those aspiring young boxers’ faces when Enzo Maccarinelli entered the room and spoke to them!