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War of words intensifies between Haye and Maccarinelli

05/03/2008

The war of words between David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli has intensified as their cruiserweight world title bout nears.

Haye holds the WBA and WBC versions of the title while Maccarinelli is the WBO champion. The British pair are set to go toe-to-toe on Saturday night in a unification bout at the O2 Arena.

Englishman Haye believes Maccarinelli's camp have underestimated him due to the amount of weight he has had to shed to make the 195-pound limit.

Haye came back from a knockdown to beat dangerous Frenchman Jean Marc Mormeck in his last bout and insists that experience shows his mental strength.

"I think they've totally underestimated me. They watched that fight, saw me knocked down and heard me complaining about the weight I've had to lose and thought 'let's get him now'," said Haye.

"Hopefully Enzo will be standing in front of me throwing punches because that will expose him."

However Maccarinelli is adamant that it is Haye who is getting too confident ahead of the bout and claims that he is the superior fighter.

The Welshman says the years he has spent sparring with undisputed super middleweight world champion Joe Calzaghe has taught him a lot.

Maccarinelli said: "Haye's the one who has under-estimated me and he'll find out on Saturday night that he's not as good as I am.

"I've been in the shadow of Joe but I always knew that the day would come when I would be able to step out of it and beat the best to become the best."

Both men have lost only once as professionals. Haye has 20 wins, all by knockout, while Maccarinelli has 29 victories with 21 knockouts.