Mario Maccarinelli
EN | IT
Mario Maccarinelli was an Italian boxer, father and mentor to the world light heavyweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli.
I first met Mario in 2003, at one of the Italian community nights in Swansea. After introducing ourselves and asking me where you're from and why you moved here, he tested my reflexes with a couple of moves and then "pam pam" hit me in the stomach! "Come to the gym, you softie!" he said.
The Bonymean Amateur Boxing Club was a humble gym, with no pretensions. Mario told me that it was originally a chapel, and that it was given to him by the priests of Morriston to train the local kids to keep them off the streets and out of trouble.
Mario was very well known and respected by everyone in the town. He was a living legend. At the Sapore café, a meeting place for Italians in Swansea, he used to entertain everyone with his anecdotes of when he was a boy, of how he started boxing. He tells in detail about his son's fights, of which he was immensely proud.
Swansea, Wales (2009)
