BOXING - Brutal body blows end Azzaoui's dream

The dream of a world title came to a frustrating and painful end for Kerikeri boxer Mohammed Azzaoui when he was floored by Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli in a WBO cruiserweight bout at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff yesterday.
Maccarinelli won with a fourth-round knockout, the Swansea man landing with a huge left to the body in round two that the Algerian born Azzaoui never fully recovered from.
Maccarinelli, displaying fine all-round boxing skills, landed another massive left hook to the kidney in round four and Azzaoui was counted out.
Azzaoui cried foul, but replays reportedly showed the killer punch was a legitimate one.
It was a bitter pill for Azzaoui to swallow, especially after arriving in Cardiff in peak condition despite being a late replacement to fight Maccarinelli whose earlier opponent had been forced to withdraw. Azzaoui had recently fought in Moscow and had been eyeing a world title fight for some time.
Azzaoui started well, making the most of some sloppy work from the hometown boy and catching Maccarinelli several times.
But the Kerikeri-based timber mill worker, who was previously unbeaten in 24 professional fights, took two brutal body blows that turned the tables.
Maccarinelli started working behind Azzaoui's jab in round two and his first punch of note, a cracking left into the ribs, was a sign of things to come. A right uppercut also wobbled Azzaoui in the third round as Maccarinelli continued to demonstrate that he is far more than a slugger.
Maccarinelli rammed home his advantage in the fourth when he caught Azzaoui off-balance and rammed home a sickening body shot to clinch victory.
"I'm enjoying this new-found stature as a `boxer'," said Maccarinelli, who has now won 28 of his 29 fights as a professional. "I'd seen some tapes and knew I could out-jab him, out-box him. I thought I did a good job. I watched a bit of footage but not too much. I'm pleased with the performance.
"The plan was to keep throwing the jab, a couple of right hooks to the body switched it to the left, then back with the right and I threw a final shot which caught him and he had no chance of getting up from it," he said.
Azzaoui was none too pleased afterwards, his connections claiming the two definitive punches were illegal.
Fought on the undercard to another Welshman, Joe Calzaghe, who beat Denmark's Mikkel Kessler in a world super-middleweight title unification fight, it was a huge event for Azzaoui with 50,000 fans there to watch the event.