Manchester/York Hall Results: Enzo Maccarinelli stopped in three, may retire

It was a showcase for ex-Olympians on the Manchester undercard of Kotelnik-Khan, but the biggest immediate news to come out of the show wasn't even featured on pay-per-view.

Former cruiserweight titlist Enzo Maccarinelli was stopped in the third round by unbeaten Dennis Lebedev, and after the fight, Maccarinelli indicated it may be time to retire. It marks the third time in four fights that he's been knocked out.

"It looks like it (retirement), to be honest I'm just devastated," Maccarinelli said. "I don't think I've got it anymore. I trained hard but nothing went right for me, I felt a bit gun-shy."

Maccarinelli (29-4, 22 KO) was also stopped in his last fight by Ola Afolabi, in 2008 by David Haye, and way back in his fourth professional fight in 2000 by Lee Swaby. He has in the past indicated an interest in going into mixed martial arts. I don't think he has the chin to make it as an elite fighter anywhere, even though he does have offensive skills. But if he's out there feeling like he can't pull the trigger, he's roadkill in boxing for sure.

Lebedev is now 18-0 with his 13th knockout tallied. The fight was for the vacant WBO inter-continental cruiserweight title, which means nothing but might get Lebedev in line for a title shot sometime.

Also in Manchester, Olympians James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders all won impressively and quickly. DeGale stopped Ciaran Healy in the first round, with Gavin and Saunders winning on second round stoppages. Gavin delivered a wicked body shot to knock down opponent Graham Fearn. Fearn somehow recovered, but the fight was waved off moments later.

The fight of the night on the Sky Box Office telecast was super-arrogant Anthony Small's eighth-round stoppage of Matthew Hall. Small started slow and jawed a ton, so much that the referee warned him about talking as well as holding. Once Small turned it on, though, his speed was way too much for Hall, who did do some good inside work in spots. It was a solid win for Small, who improves to 22-1 (16). Hall falls to 22-2 (15).

Also off TV, Kell Brook improved to 20-0 (13) with a third round stoppage of Michael Lomax, and Kevin Mitchell (29-0, 22 KO) beat journeyman Rudy Encarnacion via eighth round TKO.

York Hall Results

At York Hall, light heavyweight prospect Nathan Cleverly continues to sprint forward into being called light heavyweight contender Nathan Cleverly. He ripped apart previously unbeaten Danny McIntosh, who scored the highlight of the night when he performed a Shawn Michaels-like kip-up after being knocked down. Cleverly (17-0, 7 KO) finished him off in the seventh round.

Big-mouthed heavyweight Tyson Fury stayed unbeaten by knocking out big-waisted heavyweight Aleksandrs Selezens in the third. Fury is now 7-0, with all wins coming by stoppage.

In the fight of the day (at least between these two cards), veteran Jonathan Thaxton lost an upset decision to late sub Tom Glover in an entertaining, gutsy eight-round fight on points. Thaxton wound up losing the fight by a single point, which had been deducted in the seventh round for holding. It's a tough break for Thaxton (34-10, 19 KO), who at one point was on quite a good run. Glover (9-5-3, 0 KO) had about five pounds from the weigh-in on Thaxton, who was moving up from 135. Glover came in at 145 for the fight, with Thaxton just over 140.