After having no fights in 2019, former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) returned with a seventh round KO over the very game Mark DeLuca (24-2, 13 KOs) in a super welterweight clash on Saturday at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, England.
Brook dropped DeLuca in round three and punished him until landing a hard left jab to end it.
“2020 is the year that I become World Champion again,” Brook said afterward. “I don’t shy away from any fighter, I have a lot of respect for Liam Smith, he boxed a stablemate of mine in Liam Williams.
“I’ve sparred him and if those spars are anything to go by, the fight would be amazing.
“I know he wants the fight. We’ll sit down with Eddie [Hearn] this week. I love the Smith family but once we get in there, it’s business.
“I want to get straight back in the gym, I want to be fighting again in 10 or 12 weeks.”
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In a final eliminator for the IBF featherweight title, #4 rated Kid Galahad (27-1, 16 KOs) took apart #5 Claudio Marrero (24-4, 17 KOs) over eight rounds.
Marrero’s corner pulled their man out after the eighth round to end the one-sided affair.
As expected, female super featherweight Terri Harper (10-0, 5 KOs), a 9:1 favorite, took the WBC female title from Eva Wahlstrom (22-2, 3 KOs) via ten round unanimous decision. Harper dropped Wahlstrom in round seven. Scores were 98-91, 99-90, 99-90.
Heavyweight David Allen (18-5-2, 15 KOs) returned from his July loss to David Price with a third round KO over Dorian Darch (12-12-1, 1 KO), who is 0-8-1 in his last nine. Darch down twice in round three.
IBF #7 super featherweight Martin J Ward (24-1-2, 11 KOs) scored a shut out ten round unanimous decision over Jesus Amparan (16-2, 14 KOs). Ward dropped Amparo in rouser seven and ten en route to a 100-88 win.
Kid Galahad is a really dirty fighter. The ref turned a blind eye to it. What a joke. British fighters are dirty fighters and the commentators call them ” crafty”.
Yeah let’s make it all about nationality
I’m sure fans will hear from Khan before too long. Either saying he wants the Brook fight, but takes another fight. Or saying something about how Brook isn’t at his best now, why should I fight him. Khan has a jr. welterweight’s state of mind still, it is like he is looking up from 140 talking bad about Brook, now at 154. Or he knows he wants no part of Brook, but talks about that fight. For some reason the WBC still wants to rate Khan #10 at 147. I find a match between Takeshi Inoue vs Kell Brook more interesting than Khan. Khan can look to make something happen at 147 by fighting some top 10 WBC guys there: 3. Yordenis Ugas
4. David Avanesyan
5. Kudratillo Abdukakhorov
6. Josesito Lopez
7. Sergey Lipinets
8. Vergil Ortiz Jr.
9. Maurice Hooker
Today, Brook looked like his former self when he was at his peak. Good fight!
Yeah defence looked a bit leaky at times but I liked his offense. He was able to break a guy down who was mostly in a shell. The final left jabbish shot was a great finisher
CB, well said. Brook still has good skills as a fighter and is a threat to most in the ring. However, the GGG fight seemed to take something out of him and I am not quite sure he is really the same fighter as before.
Easy nights work for Brook and good comeback fight. Next up, Liam Smith, that will be a bigger test, since Smith is a more experienced at world level.
Actually this was a decent tune-up fight for Kell. He needs a top 10 contender next and hopefully fights again by July.