ENZO Maccarinelli will relaunch his mission to unite the cruiserweight division in February while hoping his grudge match with Herbie Hide materialises.

The withdrawal of three opponents left Maccarinelli facing Matthew Ellis at the London ExCeL on Saturday night, and it took just two rounds of vicious body shots to batter the Blackpool heavyweight into submission.

American Johnathon Banks withdrew from the planned WBO world cruiserweight title clash because of an ankle injury but is still contracted to meet Maccarinelli for the belt.

"I want to fight the best, bar none," said the Welshman, who was beaten in two rounds by David Haye nine months ago.

"Banks is first in my way and then there are another three champions. Let's get it on. I want to clean up the division, tear through it.

"I had a lot of critics after the Haye fight and I want to prove them wrong, get back to where I was at the top. I'm a focused man at the moment. No one can beat me if I do what I do best.

"It was important to get back in the ring. I did a good job. People thought I'd be gun shy but I took the centre of the ring and threw some bombs.

"Ellis took his shots well, but those body punches were crippling."

Former WBO world heavyweight champion Hide had been lined up once Banks had pulled out, only to withdraw on Wednesday.

But Maccarinelli has not given up on his dream of meeting the 37-year-old from Norwich.

"I would have liked to whack Hide into retirement. I don't like the man," he said. "He has no respect for anyone other than himself and we're in a brutal enough sport as it is.

"But he turned his phone off and didn't want the fight, yet managed to call my local paper to slag me off."