Mario
Mario Maccarinelli (1933 - 2012) was a former Italian boxer and father and mentor of the now retired professional cruiserweight boxing world champion Enzo Maccarinelli.
I met Mario for the first time in 2003, in one of the few Italian nights organized in Swansea. He came to introduce himself as I was one of the late Italian arrivals in Swansea that year. Just after a few questions like where you from and what are you doing here, that he suddenly moved back and forth and then “pam pam” he punched me in the stomach! "You look like a girl, he said with a smile, come to the gym!".
The Bonymean Amateur Boxing Club was a humble and ramshackle place where boys and girls trained seriously. The gym, originally was an old chapel which was donated to Mario by the priests of Morriston to train kids in order to keep them away from the street and from troubles.
Mario was very well known and respected by everyone in town, within and outside the Italian community. He was a living legend. At Sapore Café, he used to entertain everybody with his stories of when he was a young feller, of when he first arrives in the UK in 1954 and how he first starts boxing.
Everybody asked him about his son Enzo, and he was always keen to release updates about upcoming fights.
Was incredibly fascinating listening to Mario giving an insight look of what he felt as trainer and father at the corner of the ring of some important boxing match.
