By Rachel Aylett: Tonight in Sheffield, British welterweight Kell Brook put forth the best performance of his career to demolish veteran Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko in four action-packed rounds. It was almost a punch-perfect performance from Brook, who theoretically now goes on to challenge the winner of the upcoming Devon Alexander-Shawn Porter fight, for the IBF welterweight title.
Brook dominated the action from round one with his world class jab continually jolting back the head of his Ukrainian opponent. Senchenko landed some jabs of his own, but they had far less effect than Brook’s sharper blows. In the second round, Brook already started picking up the pace, landing some solid right handers behind that wicked jab. The writing was on the wall early for Senchenko who started to look flustered with his face becoming reddened. The third round saw the beginning of the end when Brook floored his opponent with a heavy right hand, and bombarded him with intense pressure right up to the end of the round. Senchenko looked in a state of shock as he returned to his stool, gesturing to his left ear as he reached the sanctuary of his corner. The left side of his face was also marked and swollen.
Ironically, the only part of the fight not dominated by Brook was the mid point of the fateful fourth round, when he was struck hard by a right hand to the temple which clearly made his legs do a little dance. He struggled to keep his balance and stay upright. I can’t ever remember Brook being shaken by a punch like this before in his career. He quickly recovered however and within a matter of seconds was back in control of the fight. Indeed, less than a minute later he was celebrating victory after landing a crunching right hand to the side of Senchenko’s head which pitched him forward, with Brook landing a nice short left to help his opponent on his way down to the mat. Senchenko was up at five but he did not have control of his legs and although the referee gave him every opportunity to prove his readiness to go on, Senchenko could not obey when the referee asked him to walk forward. The fight was rightly waved over.
The chief support, as looked likely on paper, was the best fight of the night. It featured Blackpool’s Brian Rose in an eliminator for the WBO light-middleweight title against visitor, Javier Maciel from Argentina. It was never a blockbuster style punch-out, but it was absolutely absorbing and the outcome was in doubt right up to the point when the judges’ split decision victory in favour of Rose was announced.
This was a classic upright boxer displaying left jab and occasional straight right hand allied to solid defence, against a heavier puncher throwing hooks to head and body. Rose was obviously the boxer and, as usual, he utilised his jab to good effect. It was a nagging annoyance to Maciel more than anything else, but it kept him honest throughout the fight. Maciel looked supremely confident in the first half of the fight, as though he felt he was in control and, indeed, the rounds he won were far more memorable than the rounds taken by Rose. They only score 10-9 though and Rose’s jab was keeping him in the fight and taking his share of rounds. After the eighth I had them level and Rose seemed to have weathered the Argentine storm, which had resulted in him suffering a nasty cut across the bridge of his nose in an early round. Luckily for Rose, this never bled profusely and was not a factor.
Rose outhustled Maciel in the ninth round to edge ahead at a crucial point in the fight and it looked as though Maciel was spent. At that point, Rose seemed poised to nick a close decision. However, Maciel surged back in the tenth and eleventh rounds to have his best stanzas of the fight. In the eleventh, in particular, he jolted Rose with a heavy overhand right and went on the rampage for 90 seconds, scoring with hook after hook and putting the round in the bag. I couldn’t split them in the last round and ended up with a scorecard reading 115-114 for the visitor. In such a close fight though, Maciel was never going to get the nod and two of the judges had it wide for Rose at 117-111 and 116-113. The American judge had it 115-113 for Maciel. The “reward” for Rose will be a shot at the winner of the upcoming Demetrius Andrade-Vanes Martirosyan WBO title fight, some time in the new year.
The most impressive performance on the undercard was that of Callum Smith, the undefeated English super-middleweight champion, who showed patience, confidence and guile in beating tough Argentine, Ruben Acosta. Smith took his record to 9-0 (7) and performed like a consummate professional against his slippery, awkward opponent. Acosta was obviously aware of Smith’s puncher’s reputation coming into the fight, and skitted around the outskirts of the ring, often jumping in with three and four punch combinations. On the occasions that this happened, Smith never panicked and simply covered up and moved back out of range to let the danger pass. He would then return to his patient stalking. It was clear from round two that if the fight were to end inside the distance, it would be Smith’s potent body attack that would bring this about. Sure enough, in the sixth round, Smith’s constant pressure told and he floored Acosta with a cracking left hook to the body. The Argentine got up but was forced into another corner where a superb triple left hook combination, body-head-body, sent him down for the count. The final left hook caused Acosta to writhe around in agony on the canvas during the count and those watching could almost feel his pain.
Olympic heavyweight gold medallist, Anthony Joshua, predictably scored his second early knockout, this time having to go into the second round before blasting out perennial opponent Paul Butlin. A thudding left hook-straight right hand put Butlin down heavily and at the same time cut open the skin over his left eye. Butlin managed to get to his feet but clearly didn’t want to continue. Howard Foster, the normally excellent referee, surprisingly waved Josh back in and he willingly landed half a dozen more heavy shots before Butlin turned away and Foster at last stepped in. I am of the school of thought that has Joshua going all the way. There is an aura about him which can’t fail to impress. He is so level-headed and intelligent with regards to his career that he seems destined for the very top – in quick time.
Commentary
Brook will have to travel to the United States if he intends to take up the challenge of the Alexander-Porter winner. Both of these fighters are managed by Al Haymon, which means they have the full backing of US television and have no need to ever travel abroad to fight. Brook will find it a daunting prospect challenging one of these excellent fighters outside his comfort zone. Interestingly, in a television interview following the main event, Eddie Hearn started talking in tongues, the translation of which was unavailable at the point of writing. He did seem to be intimating that there were other options for Kell, and the name of Amir Khan was mentioned. We shall await clarification of this in the coming weeks. Whatever the next step, there is no doubting that Brook now deserves a huge fight and a suitable payday.
It was interesting to see Eddie Hearn courting yet another fighter currently signed with a rival promoter. For the first couple of hours of the show he was seen at ringside whispering sweet nothings into the ear of Barry Awad, better known as Kid Galahad, British super-bantamweight champion and currently a member of Hennessy Sports’ team. Is yet another “announcement” imminent? I wouldn’t be surprised if Eddie’s mission statement is to sign up every British fighter with a winning record.
Brian Rose and his trainer Bobby Rimmer are two of the real good guys of boxing. Bobby is one of the most popular figures behind the scenes and is well-loved. However, after having watched tonight’s fight, as good as it was, I stand by my opinion that neither Rose nor Maciel are serious championship challengers. Having said that, there are many worse fighters than Rose to have challenged for an alphabet belt. With regards to the scoring of this fight, I had the impression whilst watching that Maciel had won clearly, but when I checked my card at the end I had him only one point up. Rose’s jab kept chipping away and popping rounds in the bag. A genuinely close fight.
The pointless exercise that Adam Etches went through was thoroughly predictable. For those who didn’t see it, he stopped his Brazilian opponent in the first round. The standard of Brazilian boxing is extremely poor. When you book an import from that country, you are more than likely getting a dud, which proved to be the case tonight with Mendes. As I wrote in my preview, it is time to step Etches up. There are dozens of fighters in Europe who would have given Etches some much needed rounds, without having the potential of upsetting him. Bad matchmaking on this occasion I’m afraid. I also suggested in my preview that this card wasn’t up to the recent standard of Eddie Hearn shows and, as it turned out, the Rose-Maciel fight was the only competitive match on the show.
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