Kell Brook gets the nod over Michael Zerafa in Sheffield
It’s been a rough few months for Kell Brook. The former IBF welterweight champion had been scheduled to return in October against Brandon Cook in October but pulled out due to weight issues.
Then came the brief suspension from the WBC rankings for not enrolling into VADA. Additionally, he had a falling out with long-time trainer Dominic Ingle. Lastly, lets not forget about the chase for an Amir Khan bout while the latter continues to show no interest.
The Recap
Fast-forward to December 8 and Brook is back in the ring but at junior middleweight instead of welterweight as he had planned. While he won arguably every round against his Australian foe, there were points in the fight where he just looked unimpressive.
Brook did an excellent job of showing his ring experience. He employed some great veteran tactics to show why he had once been on the elite level.
In the opening round he pressured Zerafa behind the jab, hitting him with huge shots and putting him on his back-foot. The round was so one-sided that it looked as if the Sheffield native may get a first round knockout.
However, the Australian survived and rebounded with a big second round. This type of inconsistency from the former welterweight champion persisted throughout the fight.
Zerafa had many moments where he looked to have hurt Brook with right hands while backing him up against the ropes. In addition, his jab was very effective in interrupting the timing of his opponent.
This is precisely where Brook did not look impressive. Though he would arguably win the rounds, he would get hit with shots that a fighter of his pedigree should not have been hit with. He had very minimal upper-body movement, his legs looked stiff as he stayed planted on the center-line for most of the fight.
He also seemed to get a bit tired in the last quarter of the fight even though he didn’t take the kind of damage that would drain a fighter’s stamina.
In The End
Regardless, he still did enough to win virtually every round. The most generous of the judges gave Zerafa three rounds which was fair.
With this win, Brook is now the mandatory for the WBA title held by Jarrett Hurd. After the fight, he mentioned his want yet again to go to welterweight and fight Amir Khan.
By: EJ Williams
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