Kell Brook was determined to make a statement in his hometown of Sheffield on Saturday night – and his demolition of Jo Jo Dan appears to have turned heads a little further afield than The Steel City.
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The IBF welterweight champion – and the only title holder in the division not named Mayweather or Pacquiao – dropped Dan four times before the Romanian’s corner pulled him out at the end of the fourth session.
It was so one-sided it begged the question as to whether it was indeed a great performance from Brook, or a mismatch of criminal proportions given championship gold was at stake.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. It shouldn’t be forgotten of course that Dan was Brook’s mandatory challenger, the IBF’s No1 ranked contender. Yet that lofty status looked increasingly spurious with every booming right hand the home fighter unloaded.
The unbeaten Brook, now 34-0 with 23 knockouts, looked quick of hand, foot and mind, with the manner of his victory all the more impressive given he was making a comeback after suffering horrendous injuries in an unprovoked knife attack while on holiday in Tenerife last year.
Still though, it was perhaps a little surprising to see his triumph garner significant praise from across the Atlantic.
The 28-year-old fighter won his title in the US, out-pointing champion Shawn Porter in California with a polished, mature performance last August. But after that victory – a rare success story for a British title challenger away from home – much of the Stateside coverage quite naturally focused on Porter’s shortcomings.
Although after showing he is several levels above the Jo Jo Dan’s of this world, a little curiously, there were plenty of kind words for this hometown hammering.
ESPN’s top boxing writer Dan Rafael was among them, tweeting:
Dan not a bad fighter. He’s actually pretty good but @SpecialKBrook made him look that way. #BrookDan #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) March 28, 2015
That was emblematic of the consensus, while Dan’s renowned promoter Lou Di Bella offered simply: “Kell Brook is very, very good… I’m a fan.”
Generally there is a liberal dose of scepticism of British fighters from the US media who, sometimes justifiably, regard them as being over-hyped. You only need look at David Price’s struggles with Tony Thompson or the beating Demetrius Andrade handed Brian Rose last year to find solid recent examples as to why.
Respect is hard-earned but Brook is starting to get it. That’s also a lesson Amir Khan knows all about, having himself been branded a ‘hype-job’ following some crushing losses.
His rebuild under Virgil Hunter has been hugely impressive and it’s pertinent to mention his name given the long-running and now inescapable clamour for him to fight Brook.
Would like to see @SpecialKBrook fight @AmirKingKhan!
— Mikkel Kessler (@MikkelKessler) March 29, 2015
Without dwelling on a well documented saga… Brook wants it, his promoter Eddie Hearn has earmarked June 13 at Wembley Stadium for a hugely lucrative all British world title fight – but Khan is strangely reticent.
The fight makes sense in every possible way but in boxing that is no guarantee of it being made. You only need look at the names on Khan’s record to dismiss the notion that he is ‘ducking’ Brook. But he’s said on several occasions he believes he is a level above his British rival, with the company he has kept in the past forming the basis of this opinion.
Khan’s preferred option for his next outing would appear to be American Adrien Broner in what could be a hugely entertaining spectacle, while Hearn suggested on Saturday night that Khan was also considering Chris Algieri.
Yet Brook, a title holder in arguably boxing’s most talent-rich division, also has options with names like Juan Manuel Marquez, Brandon Rios and Marcos Maidana all being thrown about.
The now veteran but deeply respected Marquez would be an intriguing choice for his June outing, but either way, ‘the Special One’ is moving up in the world.
