Bloodied and battered but Brook weighs in with win

Monday 9 July 2012

KELL BROOK came through the first major crisis of his career on Saturday night to eke out a majority verdict over Carson Jones at the Motorpoint Arena.

Kell Brook's corner set about patching up their man's broken nose on Saturday night. Picture: PA

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However, Eddie Hearn, Brook's promoter, insists the Sheffield welterweight must improve his preparations behind the scenes to succeed at the highest level.

Brook has barely dropped a round this past year in victories over Lovemore N'Dou, Rafal Jackiewicz, Luis Galarza and Matthew Hatton, and Saturday's bout was expected to follow suit.

The opening five rounds went to form as the 26-year- old cruised effortlessly along, picking apart Jones' one-dimensional come-forward style. Around the midway point, however, the gameplan changed dramatically.Brook, visibly tired, suffered a broken nose in round seven. The man from Oklahoma sensed his chance and unleashed a relentless assault on his bloodied opponent in the closing stages, but Brook somehow managed to weather the storm. The significant blood loss, though, meant Brook was taken straight to hospital afterwards, leaving a relieved Hearn to explain how problems with dieting and making the weight left his man running on empty."I haven't really been happy all week," he said. "He has had big, big problems making the weight. He's a massive welterweight. It's always tight, it's always tough, but this time in particular was very tough. "On Thursday night I thought if this fight goes long he will get very tired. He broke his nose in the seventh round which was probably the worst thing that could have happened to him. He lost a lot of blood."Nevertheless, Hearn was happy to take the positives from a gruelling evening, where Brook displayed a fortitude his progress to date had not previously highlighted."My assessment is we've found out he has a massive heart, he's got plenty of guts and he's got a great chin," said Hearn. "But we also found out that he's got bundles of work to do. I'm happy in a way because if he'd knocked the guy out in seven rounds, in my mind I still know we've got to change a lot of things – but now he knows it."He likes his food, but you know how tough it is making weight when you're big at the weight. I don't want people to think that he's just a slob. He trains very hard, he lives the life. But you live the life of perhaps a British champion. I want him to live the life of a pound-for-pound champion. I want him to do everything immaculately."Next on the agenda for Brook is a final eliminator for a shot at the IBF title against Argentina's big-punching but vulnerable Hector Saldivia, and Hearn would welcome that opportunity for further fine tuning before judgment night arrives."If we got the world title shot now, I might think to myself 'I want to see how he's improving'," he added. "If he improves his preparation, fights Saldivia and looks incredible, then we're going to just dive in [for a world title]. We'll go mad for it."

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Bloodied and battered but Brook weighs in with win

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