Conquest and Maccarinelli victorious at York Hall

19.11.11

By @leeElford (Lee Elford)

TONY CONQUERS YORK HALL AS ‘BIG MAC’ BITES BACK

Enzo Maccarinelli made a triumphant return at York Hall, Bethnal Green on Friday night stopping the Hungarian champion Gyorgy Marosi via TKO in the 1st round and extending his record to 34 – 5 while securing the Southern Area Light Heavyweight title.

As Tom Petty’s ‘I won’t back down’ sounded out around the famous arena, Maccarinelli was paraded to the ring by his namesake and legendary trainer of son Joe, Enzo Calzaghe.

‘Big Mac’ wasted no time as he was swift out of the blocks, thumping his undefeated, considerably shorter and 7lb’s lighter counterpart with stiff left jabs and powerful right leads, looking much fitter and quicker after coming down to Light Heavyweight.

Marosi looked resilient as he attempted short pot shots at the dominant ex-cruiserweight world champion and occasionally landed. But it was all to be too little, and too much as the big blows started to take their toll and the ref stepped in as he looked unsteady against the ropes.


"Enzo’s a perfect replacement at the top of the bill, he’s obviously come in here tonight and done the business against a very dangerous opponent and we’ll be sitting down with him next week to have a chat about his next move" said Queensbury Promotions chief Francis Warren from ringside

On a future match up with Nathan Cleverly:

"It’s something down the line that potentially could happen, obviously it’s a massive fight in Wales, two Welshman at the Millennium Stadium would be a massive draw and a massive event. To begin with he can’t go straight in there and I think a fight against Ovill Mckenzie would be a sensible move for him and we’ll be looking to put that on for him early next year."

Later, Romford’s 7 – 0 Cruiserweight prospect Tony ‘The Conqueror’ Conquest landed the southern area cruiserweight title and improved to 8 – 0 after entering the arena to rapturous applause and support from a buoyant section of the crowd. The fight itself lived up to the crowds energy as he was taken 10 rounds by Toks Owoh in a one sided contest which was undoubtedly fight of the night.

Straight from the off, Conquest looked the stronger and classier, as he landed several big body shots and left jabs, but as Owoh soaked up the punishment and landed a few of his own, he only found The Conqueror replying with stinging combos to the head and body.

Owoh would enjoy a more even 2nd round, landing several solid shots but he was receiving twice as many in return with an equal amount landing. And the busier Conquest would take round 2 as well.

Heading into round 3 it was swaying The Conqueror’s way indefinitely as he landed a beautiful 3 jab, right lead combination which unsettled the Newham fighter for the first time.

As they approached the middle part of the fight it was Conquest landing with more and more severity only to find again Owoh again banging back with solid shots. At the end of round 5 he was hitting Owoh with several huge left and right’s to the head. After trudging back to his corner dejected and receiving more telling punishment in the coming rounds it was clear the result was a formality.

The Gallant Newham fighter would take a stumble in round 9 to a cheering crowd which was ruled a no knockdown. He had been rocked by a severe uppercut earlier in the round and he was evidently tired. As the 10th and final bell sounded, Tony Conquest held Toks Owoh’s hand aloft as a show of respect for the refusal to lie down in the face of adversity, ending with appreciative applause from all sectors of the crowd.7

Earlier in the evening, two of Jimmy and Mark Tibb’s prospects were in action. First, Lightweight Billy Morgan improved to 5 – 0 when easily outpointing Marc Callaghan over 4 rounds, who while gallant in defeat, unfortunately picked up a nasty head injury in the first round. Morgan looked classy, picking off his opponent and served up hurtful shots to the head and body.

Frank Buglioni put in another short nights work on his second outing as a professional with another 1st round stoppage. The highly rated prospect put his opponent down who survived an eight count before another barrage of classy combinations had his man hitting the canvas a second time and the ref quickly halted proceedings.
Mark Tibbs was ringside;

"To be honest with you where I was concentrating on Frank Buglioni I saw Billy on the monitor so I can’t speak about him but the old man said he done very well. I don’t want to fast track Frank, I don’t think he needs to be fast tracked, and he’s doing more than what’s being asked of him. I’m going to get him sparring with some decent opposition like I have done.

"We had this job come up against a south paw (tonight’s opponent Paul Morby) and because we had Billy Joe Saunders to help we had a bit of south paw sparring. He’d been working with Georgie Groves before that and a couple of Russians who Adam Booth’s got over there. So I think as he’s been mixing with good company it showed in there tonight.’’
Mark gave an update on the goings on with WBO intercontinental champion Kevin Mitchell;
‘’Kevin’s due back training with us next week. To be honest with you, I understand he’s on a ban with the board so there are no fights in place at the moment. But the good thing is he’s got a good frame of mind which is one good step and we’re about to get him back in the gym. He’s been absent for a little while now which’s not good. I reckon we’ll have him back in the ring in March." he concluded.

WBA middleweight title challenger Matt Macklin, a victim of a contentious decision against Felix Sturm earlier this year gave his views on the evening and also an insight into his plans for his next fight;

"It was good to see Enzo get a win back tonight, nice guy and a friend of mine. I wasn’t sure how he’d be down at light heavy. I thought he’d be either a complete success or a complete disaster. He was either going to be a monster at it or fragile you know. You can’t take too much out of that because he didn’t really get hit back but he’s obviously took his time and took the weight off properly, I spoke to him and he says he feels comfortable at it and fingers crossed he does.

"Unfortunately I didn’t get here till late but I thought the last one (Conquest vs Owoh) was a great fight. It was really entertaining and I thought that Tony showed a lot of grit and determination. It was a bit one sided I thought, at one stage I could see the corner pulling him out. He was taking a bit of a beating and he showed a lot of pride to get through to the final bell."

On a potential clash with Sergio Martinez:

I’m pretty confident the fight will get made, it’s not made but I’ve spoke with Lou a few times about it. Outside of Mayweather fighting him, Pacquiao’s not going to fight Martinez. After the Sturm fight which I thought I won and everyone in America thought I won, I’m the leading contender so, aside from Mayweather fighting him I think it’s definitely going to be Martinez next.’’

Also on the bill, ‘Big’ Tom Little scored a points victory over a 4 round contest against Hastings Rasami after making the better start in round 1 and 2. The Hatfield heavyweight made it to 2 – 0 to strong crowd support;

‘Rockin’ Robin Deakin earlier put in another tough crowd pleasing performance, taking Matty Tew the full 4 rounds in their Light Welterweight contest. Trained by Graham Earl, Deakin is still to improve on his 1 sole victory in what was his 40th outing as a professional. Tew improved to 8 – 0 and on top throughout, complained of a head butt from Deakin in round one before tying up the fight to big support.

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