Fast Results from the UK: Kell Brook Underwhelming But Wins

Fighting before a home crowd at the Sheffield Arena, Kell Brook improved to 38-2 with a unanimous 12-round decision over Australia’s Michael Zerafa (25-3). Brook won comfortably on the scorecards (119-109, 118-110, 117-111), but was far from impressive over a foe that he was expected to dominate. During one point in the bout, Sky Box TV commentator Carl Froch described Brook’s showing as “sluggish and sloppy.”

There was a nagging suspicion that Brook would never be the same after taking a lot of damage in back-to-back defeats to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. He suffered broken eye sockets in both of those bouts, first the right eye and then the left. While it would be premature to label the 32-year-old Brook a has-been, it’s a fair assumption that he has crossed over to the wrong side of the hill.

Brook has been calling out countryman Amir Khan on social media. Khan may now be more willing to accept the bout.

UNDERCARD RESULTS

The main supporting bout was scratched when fast-rising welterweight Josh Kelly took ill and pulled out of his contest with David Avanesyan with less than 24 hours notice. That bumped the 12-round junior lightweight contest between Dublin’s Jono Carroll (16-0, 3 KOs) and Guillaume Frenois of France (46-1, 12 KOs) into the co-feature.

Th 26-year old Carroll, who looked like a frontiersman with his long beard (it was odd he wasn’t required to shave it off) and his 35-year-old adversary were not known for being hard punchers so this figured to be a tactical fight that would likely go the distance. And that proved true.

After 12 rounds of an entertaining fight, the judges were unable to determine a winner. The scores were 115-113, 113-115, and 114-114. The split draw muddled the water in the 130-pound division as the winner was promised a fight with Tevin Farmer who makes the second defense of his title next week against Costa Rica’s Francisco Fonseca at Madison Square Garden.

It took only 90 seconds for Liverpool middleweight Anthony Fowler (9-0, 8 KOs) to dismiss Argentina’s Jose Carlos Paz. Fowler collapsed Paz (23-8-1) with a body punch.

Kid Galahad (aka Abdul Awad), a former British and European super bantamweight champion, now competing as a junior lightweight, cruised to an 8-round decision over Nicaragua’s Brayan Mairena. The “Kid” stays undefeated at 26-0. It was the fifth straight loss for Mairena (10-5-1).

In a bout slated for six rounds, Sheffield welterweight Anthony Tomlinson improved to a 9-0 with a fifth round stoppage of Innocent Anyanwo. This was the 20^th straight loss for Anyanwo, a 40-year-old Nigerian who fights out of the Netherlands.

In a women’s bout slated for six rounds, England’s Terri Harper, a lightweight, scored a 5^th round stoppage of Tanzania’s Ferriche Mashoury.

In a domestic squabble contested at 122 pounds, Qais Ashfag (4-0) scored a fifth round stoppage of Jay Carney (5-3-2).

In the opener, Sheffield super middleweight Callum Hancock advanced to 9-0 with a four round decision over Bulgaria’s Ivan Nikolov (2-5-1).

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