By Tyson Bruce
Carson, California- Undefeated welterweight Kell Brook, 33-0-0-(22 ko’s), shocked the boxing world by dethroning IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, 25-1-1-(14 ko’s). Porter charged at Brook the opening bell with near constant but often ineffective aggression. Brook created favor with the judges by picking the more effective shots.
Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions
After seeding the majority of the first round, Brook stunned Porter with a clean right cross at the end of the stanza. Porter got the better of the majority of the early rounds by bullying Brook and landing hard body shots. Porter often led recklessly with his head and accidental head clash in round three produced a cut over Brook’s left eye. The favor would be returned in the sixth round when Porter suffered a cut from yet another head butt.
The momentum of the bout shifted in the eighth round when Brook began to land the cleaner punches—notably quick straight right hands and nifty uppercuts. Porter’s strategy of nonstop aggression backfired in the latter stages of the fight, as he looked badly fatigued. The more relaxed Brook showed tremendous poise by handling himself on the inside and strategically picking shots when there was distance between the two men.
The final scores were, predictably, all over the map with the British judge scoring the bout 114-114, only to be overruled by the 117-110 and 116-111 verdicts from the American judges, both in favor of Brook.
In an utterly dull and foul filled affaire, super middleweight Anthony Dirrell won a slice of the world championship by defeating Sakio Bika by unanimous decision. In a rematch of a controversial draw many expected Dirrell, by far the more gifted athlete, to box but the bout was rugged dogfight from the get go. Dirrell showed greater ring generalship and landed the cleaner punches throughout what was an ugly bout. Bika was deducted a point in the eighth round for a low blow by the referee, Jack Reiss. Bika tried to rally in the championship rounds but was unable to land anything significant against Dirrell. The judges scored the bout 117-110, 116-111 and 115-114 all in favor of Dirrell.
In a thrilling opening bout lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa, 24-0-0-(17 ko’s), retained his title with a ninth round TKO over the rugged Daniel Estrada, 32-3-1-(24 KOs). A suspenseful and relatively even fight took a turn for the worse when Figueroa was badly cut by a headbutt in round eight. Figueroa, obviously fearing the fight would be stopped, came out with a vengeance in the ninth round and floored Estrada with a big right hand. He got the stoppage with his follow up barrage.