By Scott Gilfoid: Junior middleweight Brian Rose (26-3-1, 8 KOs) knows full well that his career will be on the line in his rematch against high level journeyman Carson Jones (37-10-3, 27 KOs) in a little over a week from now on August 1st at the Craven Park Stadium, Hull, Yorkshire.
Rose, 30, was knocked out in the 1st round by Jones last February in what some people characterize as an upset, but I think it was more of a case of Rose being beaten by a better fighter than himself.
Rose points out that he had Jones stunned in the opening seconds of the contest but he got too excited and went for the kill. It was at that point that Jones hurt Rose with an overhand right that landed on the side of Rose’s head, causing him to stagger around the ring until referee Ian John-Lewis did the smart thing in stopping it at 2:27 of the round.
“I have to win this fight and there are no ifs or buts about it,” said Rose via skysports.com. “I have come back from worse than this and everyone knows I have a big heart.”
When Rose says he’s “come back from worse,” he appears to be taking about his 6th round knockout loss to journeyman Max Maxwell in their fight in 2010. Rose wasn’t supposed to lose that fight too, but Maxwell hurt him and got the stoppage. To Rose’s credit, he was able to avenge the defeat two years later in beating Maxwell by a 12 round unanimous decision in March 2012.
Rose’s situation is obviously not good now. He’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights in the past year, and really you can make a strong argument that Rose has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights because his 12 round split decision win over Javier Francisco Maciel in October 2013 was a controversial victory where a lot of fans felt that Maciel had done more than enough to deserve the victory. I saw the fight and had Maciel easily winning. The Rose-Maciel fight, by the way, took place at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield. My point is Rose has not been fighting good, he’s not been looking good, and he’s not good enough to assume that he should be favored against anybody of decent quality.
“A lot of people can’t come back from defeat – I can and I have proved it before. I want to clear up what I should have done in the first fight, and I have never been more determined in my life before a fight,” Rose said.
I respect Rose for wanting to try and avenge his loss to Carson Jones, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a good chance that Rose loses this fight again. I think if it goes to the cards, Rose wins. I cannot see Jones getting a decision unless he knocks Rose down four or five times. I don’t think he’ll be given the decision. But I don’t think it’s going to go the full 12 rounds unfortunately for Rose. He’s too chinny, and Jones hits too hard with his right hand. Jones had Kell Brook staggering around in the 12th round in their first fight in 2012, and I had Jones winning that fight. He broke Brook’s nose and made a mess out of his fight. Since I don’t see Rose as being in the same league as Brook, or even close to that, I see this fight as being Jones’ to lose. He should be the favorite by the odds-makers.
“I hurt him early in the first round in Blackpool and maybe I got too excited after that. That is normally not like me, and I will go back to being cautious, which is how I normally approach things,” Rose said.
I think Rose is grabbing for straws in trying to explain away his loss to Jones. What Rose should be saying is ‘I couldn’t handle Jones’ power, so I got knocked out. I sure hope I can handle it the second time around because I don’t think my chin has gotten any better and I’m not gotten any younger.’
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