Alexander Frenkel, a surging young cruiserweight, scored a frightening seventh round knockout of former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli yesterday in Birmingham, England. Frenkel improves his record to 23-0 with 18 KOs. Maccarinelli falls to 32-5 with 25 KOs. Maccarinelli has been stopped in all of his losses.
Frenkel, who is from Ukraine and fights out of Germany, traveled to Maccarinelli's home turf of Great Britain in the biggest fight of his career to date. Maccarinelli, who is from Wales, was firmly in the fight until the seventh. With 51 seconds to go in the round, Maccarinelli threw an ill-fated right that Frenkel ducked. Frenkel then generated a tremendous amount of force as he rose and connected with a dynamic left hook that sent Maccarinelli's head springing around and his body to the canvas.
At that point, referee Erkki Meronen should have stopped the fight. Maccarinelli gallantly stood up, but his legs had left him and his eyes were glazed. When the fight continued, Frenkel knocked Maccarinelli unconscious with an unmerciful one-two combination. The fight was finally stopped with 30 seconds left in the seventh round.
The win earned Frenkel the European cruiserweight title formerly held by Maccarinelli. It also created a large amount of buzz around the 25-year old. After piling up eight knockouts in a row, Frenkel won an easy unanimous decision over the hard-nosed Michael Simms last March. This impressive stoppage of a former champion should give Frenkel a shot at the cruiserweight division's best.
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