Enzo Calzaghe - form is temporary; class is permanent by Craig MacKay Mar 20th 2008

After being blown away by David Haye inside two rounds, Enzo Maccarinelli could have been forgiven for wanting to turn off his TV, throw out the newspapers and hide away from the outside world. His coach, Enzo Calzaghe, on the other hand was still The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year and still boasted two world champions in his small stable.  Surely he would be immune from any criticism? Not so it appears. Maybe rather than Maccarinelli, it should have been Calzaghe who hid himself away. In the immediate aftermath of the Haye-Maccarinelli bout there was a great deal of excitement surrounding Haye. So impressive was his victory that the public began to believe that Britain now has a boxer capable of dominating the heavyweight division. The euphoria surrounding Haye's victory wasn't surprising but almost before Maccarinelli was able to steady his feet there was a great deal of criticism flying his coach's way. Enzo Calzaghe has been lauded in the past for training his fighters at a run down gym with old equipment and yet still getting impressive results. However, now his training methods were “old fashioned”, “last century” or “unscientific” and Maccarinelli was “out of shape” or “woefully underprepared”. This must have came as a shock to a coach who only last year was hailed as a genius for masterminding Maccarinelli's 'world' title defences, Gavin Rees' shock 'world' title win over Souleymane M'baye and his own son's career defining victory over Mikkel Kessler. Suddenly the aura of invincibility surrounding Calzaghe's fighters has gone and the camp must have taken a big hit to their morale. This will be music to the ears of Andreas Koletnik who challenges Gavin Rees for his WBA light-welterweight title on Saturday and Bernard Hopkins who faces Joe Calzaghe for the ring magazine light-heavyweight title. Does the criticism of Calzaghe snr just serve to show the fickle nature of the boxing world or has Maccarinelli's loss to Haye highlighted inadequacies of a coach who refuses to move into the 21st century? Calzaghe must have sensed there would be some criticism of his methods as in the immediate aftermath of the fight he sought to avoid any portion of blame by claiming that Maccarinelli lost because he didn't fight to plan, rather than any mistake on his part. I don't believe a boxing trainer becomes a bad trainer overnight, especially a trainer who was recognised as the world's top trainer only last year. Why should Enzo have altered training methods that have been good enough to guide Maccarinelli to his defences or to get Calzaghe jnr into the top five pound for pound fighters in the world? If running up and down steps, sparring in an old ring or using weight machines (which I doubt still have a valid warranty) can get Joe Calzaghe into the shape he was in against Jeff Lacy or Mikkel Kessler, then it is more than effective enough to get Maccarinelli into shape. Try telling Calzaghe trained boxers like Garry Lockett, Nathan Cleverly and Bradley Pryce that Calzaghe's methods are not effective and I am sure they will tell you that Enzo is a fantastic coach that will push their bodies as far as they can go and a little bit more! Despite my defence of Enzo Calzaghe, I do believe that listening to the criticism levelled at him will do him no harm. Maybe it is time that a more scientific approach was applied to his training regimes, or maybe a move to a new gym is overdue but these are all questions that a man as experienced as Calzaghe can decide for himself. His fighter's future results will speak for themselves and if Rees can pull of another shock and defend his WBA title against Andreas Kotelnik and if Joe Calzaghe can move further up the p4p rankings by beating Hopkins then I am sure all will be forgotten. If, however, they don't win then the voices of criticism will grow stronger but I still don't think they hold much water. This is a man who has taken a small stable in a small town in South Wales and turned it into one of the most recognised boxing clubs in the world. A lot more will have to go wrong before I will call into question his judgement when it comes to training. So if I don't think Calzaghe's training should be called into question then what do I think went wrong? The main thing is that simply, Haye is a better fighter than Maccarinelli, he is the best cruiserweight in the world and would not have lost to Maccarinelli no matter what shape Enzo was in. There is also the point that has been raised time and time again; does Frank Warren overprotect his fighters? Haye has mixed in better company than Maccarinelli recently. Whilst Haye went over to France to wrestle the WBA and WBC titles from Jean Marc Mormek's backyard, Maccarinelli was fighting Mohammed Azzaoui, a fighter who looked like he was there to collect the appearance money and run. Fights like these did Maccarinelli no good apart from possibly giving him, his fans and his coach false hope against a prime David Haye. These are things that Enzo Calzaghe's training cannot help and maybe people should look elsewhere before pointing the finger at the easiest target. Defending Calzaghe's training methods is not particularly difficult but trying to defend his post fight rhetoric is infinitely more so and not something I would attempt to do. Claiming that he still does not rate Haye and that Maccarinelli would have destroyed him had the fight went twelve rounds do him no favours whatsoever. Even more confusing is his complaint that Haye only threw four punches a round yet in the next breath criticising him for needing FIVE straight rights to floor Maccarinelli. All these comments do is turn boxing fans against a coach who rather than being graceful in defeat appears bitter and resentful to the point of being nonsensical. This is the words of a passionate man who is hurt that his fighter lost and I would think in a few weeks he will look back and realise that his man lost to a superior boxer. I back team Calzaghe to bounce back strongly from this setback starting with wins from Rees and Calzaghe jnr although even if either or both his fighters happen to lose I hope that Enzo Calzaghe is not thrown to the lion's den just yet. We are lucky to have a trainer such as Enzo in the UK helping British boxing achieve recognition on the world stage.

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