Enzo Maccarinelli

His father had emigrated to Wales in the 1950s from Lake Garda in Italy.

Mario had been a boxing champion in the Italian army and had continued his boxing career in South Wales, competing in local amateur events.

Enzo Maccarinelli (born 20 August 1980) is a retired Welsh former professional boxing world champion who competed from 1999 to 2016.

Mario took over ownership of Bonymaen Amateur Boxing Club in 1985 and encouraged Enzo into the sport from a young age.

Enzo began attending the gym from the age of four before properly beginning training at the age of eight and having his first competitive fight at ten.

Maccarinelli also took up kickboxing and achieved a brown belt in the discipline.

He won his first youth title the same year and won eight more during his early career.

Maccarinelli's lifestyle soon affected his fights as he often skipped training to meet with friends.

His father later remarked that "Enzo wasn't preparing himself properly ... he was overweight as he wouldn't stop eating. He wouldn't listen to me."

However, his father continued that, in Enzo "We knew we had something special".

As a teenager, Maccarinelli worked as an apprentice bricklayer alongside his boxing after leaving school but gave up the profession after suffering a fractured bone in his hand when a falling breeze block landed on it.

Maccarinelli turned professional in 1999, but employed a new trainer after parting ways with his father who noted "I couldn't push him to be world champion because he'd answer me back".

The pair instead hired Charlie Pearson, a former trainer of fellow Welsh boxer Nicky Piper.

Maccarinelli made his professional debut on 2 October 1999 against Paul Bonson, winning a points decision over four rounds at the Cardiff International Arena.

In the following four months, he won two further fights, both by TKO.

In his fourth professional fight, Maccarinelli suffered his first defeat in a shock upset against southpaw Lee Swaby at Swansea Leisure Centre.

Maccarinelli was regarded as a bright prospect ahead of the bout and the fight was the headline of an event broadcast in live television.

He had been in the ascendancy in the early rounds and had knocked down Swaby on one occasion before Swaby won the fight after stopping Maccarinelli in the third round.

Maccarinelli has attributed the defeat to his lifestyle at the time, as he spent the build up to the fight drinking and eating junk food, later commenting " I wasn't living the life. There's a picture somewhere of me two nights before the fight, out in town. I shouldn't have been out, and I think I believed my own hype".

He later admitted to rewatching the fight on more than one occasion to "keep his feet on the ground.

Maccarinelli returned to the ring seven months later to defeat Chris Woollas on points.

Between 2001 and January 2003, Maccarinelli embarked on a winning streak, winning a further eight bouts to move onto nine consecutive wins.

Ahead of a bout against Estonian Valeri Semiskur, he failed an eye exam as part of his medical before the fight.

He later revealed that he had suffered from poor eyesight since the start of his career, but had repeatedly passed the medicals by asking a friend to take the test beforehand and note the answers.

This ruse was only discovered ahead of the Semiskur bout when the optician changed the test board without Maccarinelli knowing.

As a result, he underwent laser eye surgery before the bout to fix the problem.

He went on to defeat Semiskur by TKO in the first round at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth.

On 28 June 2003, Maccarinelli fought Bruce Scott for the vacant WBU cruiserweight title.

He suffered a nervy start and was knocked down in the first minute by Scott but managed to get back to his feet.

Maccarinelli slowly gained the ascendancy and secured his first WBU title in the fourth round after knocking Scott out with a left hook.

In doing so, he became the first boxer from Swansea to win a version of the world title.

He made his first defence of the title three months laters, stopping Estonian Andrej Karsten with an uppercut in the first minute of their bout at the Newport Centre.

His title victory and defence led to him being voted British Boxing Writer's Club young fighter of the year for 2003.

Maccarinelli's second defence was originally scheduled to be against Chile's Carlos Cruzat, but his opponent was forced to withdraw shortly before the bout due to injury.

Instead, South African Earl Morais was chosen as a late replacement.

The fight again ended in the first round as Maccarinelli stopped Morais with a left hook after 90 seconds.

His promoter Frank Warren commented after the fight that Maccarinelli was "one of the hardest punchers in the world".

He held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2006 to 2008.

At regional level, he held the European and British cruiserweight titles between 2010 and 2012, and the Commonwealth light-heavyweight title in 2013.

Maccarinelli was born in Swansea, United Kingdom to Elizabeth (née Leyshon) and Mario Maccarinelli.