This Bud vs Brook fight could be a sleeper. Kell Brook's been fighting up at 154, so not only is a bigger guy, but he's acclimated to fighting bigger guys now. People are writing Brook off since having had both his eye sockets broken against GGG and Spence respectively, but he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. It's the opposite for Crawford. The fact that Kell even had the discipline to make the weight signals this dude just might fight the fight of his life. I expect Crawford to work his magic, but as they say "this is boxing." Brook was doing very well against both Spence and GGG before being stopped, no matter how this fight goes, it's going to be interesting.

Before that fight happens at night though, there's a UK card with 3 women's title fights, headlined by the great Katie Taylor defending her undisputed status at Lightweight. She'll be fighting Miriam Gutierrez who has yet to fight outside of Spain, but can be tricky and really nice with it when she's in her rhythm. Good footwork and head movement. Word is she hits very hard as well. Gonna be a good one.
Possibly the most intriguing one of the 3 with be Terri Harper vs Katharina Thanderz. Harper is a young champ who recently won her belt, then was tested and arguably beaten by Jonas in her next fight which was judged a draw. She retained her titles and took it as a wake up call. Both her and Thanderz enter this fight undefeated. Thanderz is more of a vet. This could very well be another huge test for Harper. Very competitive fight on paper.
Lastly, Rachel Ball, an ex kickboxer, rose to prominence when she upset rising star, Shannon Courteny. She's challenging for a vacant title. It was supposed to be at bantamweight, but her opponent came in so far over the limit that it's now for an interim super bantam status. Ball should win. She's 5'9" which is super tall for her weight.

https://twitter.com/ESPNRingside/status/1327403388334604288

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILRptHEURmc

Breaking both eye socket, in separate fights? That sounds Terrible.

Thanks for the heads up, wasn’t on my radar, but I will watch. Hopefully it will be competitive

>Breaking both eye socket, in separate fights? That sounds
>Terrible.


Yeah man, in back to back fights too. He'd won a title at 147 against Shawn Porter. Then went up 2 weight classes to fight GGG at 160 and got his right eye socket fractured. He dropped back down in his very next fight to 147 to face Errol Spence and got his left eye socket fractured.


>Thanks for the heads up, wasn’t on my radar, but I will
>watch. Hopefully it will be competitive


No doubt.

to me.

Going up for GGG then coming down for Spence was not a good look.

He seemed to be in consistently good shape for this training camp.

He was handling Spence in their fight and gassed out around the 6th round.

I could see this fighting going the distance.

>Going up for GGG then coming down for Spence was not a good
>look.

Not at all. Here's what Crawford had to say about that.

“It was brave of him, but at the same time stupid of him, But at the same time, it shows how he believe in his self, going up to fight a guy like Golovkin.He was doing good, But Golovkin was looking for that one punch to knock him out. Once Golovkin caught up to him, you see him starting to break him down. There’s weight classes for a reason.”


>He seemed to be in consistently good shape for this training
>camp.
>
>He was handling Spence in their fight and gassed out around
>the 6th round.


True.

>I could see this fighting going the distance.


It definitely could. I really wanna see Crawford continue his unblemished streak of stoppages at Welterweight though.

The challenger I gave the smallest chance actually gave the best effort. Imo, Guanini won rounds 1 - 6. Made Ball miss & made her pay, beat her to the punch, and opened up the head with body shots. She slowed down at Ball won 7 - 10 on activity. Guanini should've gotten the nod, but it went to Ball who was the house fighter.

Harper came out in round 2 and immediately made a statement against Thanderz. Boxed at range the whole fight and Thanderz just had no answers overall. Harper then landed a body shot in rd 9 that visibly hurt Thanderz. She moved around doubled over until the ref stepped in and called it off.

Taylor came out blazing against Gutierrez and never let up. She looked lightning fast, which made Gutierrez look like she was moving in slow motion. She just could not get going. Taylor landed so many fucking punches. Gutierrez even went down at the end of rd 4, but as much as she got hit, she never looked rattled at all. The woman's chin is amazing. She lost every round tho. Easy work for Taylor.

Now to wait for Bud vs Brook.

He's an unbeaten prospect from Uraguay, living in CA who faced another unbeaten prospect tonight. Got dude up out of there in the 2nd round. A really crisp counter right hook over the top of Edward Ortiz' jab started the onslaught that caused the ref to step in. He's now 12-0, 11KO's.

No clash of heads! His eye became swollen due to a punch!!

Boxing continues to fock itself.

Replay ruined everything.

I wouldn't change this. There's enough uncertainty, and he made contact any way.


Just dumb.

And tesatore looks ass trying to include things, he needs to check himself

Hell no!

A punch clearly caused the eye to swell...it was a clean jab!

There was no head butt!

And a head butt causes a cut, not huge swelling ...a punch does that with a thumb in the eye.

There was a head butt on the opposite side of the head.

It's not this damn hard.

For replay or VAR.

KILL IT!!!!!! In all sports!

And f'k joe tesatore and hoe ass Timmy. Doing way to much

.

. I understand having power in both hands but to get hurt like that from a jab(that wasn't even on the chin?).

Taking nothing away from Crawford tho.

>. I understand having power in both hands but to get hurt
>like that from a jab(that wasn't even on the chin?).



People keep calling it a jab, but I think that's misleading for two reasons. 1, the way he turned the shot over was more like a short hook in the vein of the way Floyd would throw left hooks (see the Gatti or Hatton fights), 2, it was throw from a southpaw stance with his power hand, so it was a powerful shot. Not only that, but as Brook said in the post-fight interview, he didn't see the shot coming, and those are the shots that really hurt you. An unseen shot from your opponent's power hand would rock anybody.

He was behind before the stoppage. I’m not saying he would have lost. But he got tagged a few times, and his eye was on the verge of closing.

However, I think he sensed that, and applied more pressure and got dude out there. That’s another sign of a great fighter. Acknowledging a possible danger ( his eye), and putting that shit to rest immediately. Taking zero chances.

>He was behind before the stoppage.


2 to 1 isn't much to worry about in a 12 rd fight.>


>I’m not saying he would
>have lost. But he got tagged a few times, and his eye was on
>the verge of closing.


I know people argue that no one would take a shot for the purpose of figuring their opponent out, but Crawford has done it consistently. He even took a shot to deliver the blow that rocked Brook. He risked getting hit to drop Benavidez as well (another fight where he was getting tagged in the early rounds).

His eyelid was cut, but I wouldn't say it was on the verge of closing.




>However, I think he sensed that, and applied more pressure and
>got dude out there. That’s another sign of a great fighter.
>Acknowledging a possible danger ( his eye), and putting that
>shit to rest immediately. Taking zero chances.



This is an interesting conclusion, because you're saying he stopped Brook at will. Let's combine this with what you said about him getting tagged. That's part of his strategy and how he knew exactly how to stop the guy. Bud's just not afraid to get hit. Some say boxing is "hit and not get hit", but some people are dogs beyond that concept. I think it's also part of the reason Bud didn't have an outstanding amateur record (58-12), because his style isn't suited to just racking up points by hitting and not getting hit. He's a fighter before he's a boxer, not the other way around.

as well.

Before Bud, Brook had had 3 fight since Spence. All at 154 with guys who'd fought above 154. One even started his career at 175. Brook stopped 2 of them and went the distance with one, Zerafa who KO'd Jeff Horn. In the Zerafa fight, Kell got hit in the eyes plenty of times. He was never wobbled. If he was shot, he would've crumbled from getting hit by a guy coming down from middleweight. Bud just knows how to time and place his punches.

Also, Brook said very important things after the fight. He said Bud caught him with a shot he didn't see. But he also said something even more important... He said Americans have access to better training and that the UK is a little behind. I think that's important, because he never said anything like that after his other losses. That indicates he's aware that Bud outsmarted him and was far and away the better fighter. He went on to say no one's ever done him like that, even in sparring and that Bud MADE him tentative, and he couldn't even fully understand how Bud was doing that to him.

When it all adds up, I just gotta give credit to Bud. The brilliance of that shot is being overlooked imo. Caught him off balance with a shot he didn't see coming. Just beautiful.

I haven't seen Brook since the Spence fight. But the reason he seems shot to me is precisely because of the Spence and GGG fights. He stood in there and took shots from GGG for 5 rounds before the broken orbital bone. Took shots from ESJ for 11 rounds, and really started to get broken down around 7-8 iirc. But then he can't even go 4 with Bud? He didn't even really take much damage at all, then WAM he's outta there off that punch? Okay didn't see it, okay off balance... but man, that didn't seem like punch someone who's been in there with much heavier punchers shouldn't be able to recover from.

until that beautiful check hook changed everything. That was one of the stiffest/sneakiest check hooks I've ever seen.

I've always enjoyed watching Brook - he brings it every time and ducks nobody - but unfortunately he hasn't quite been the same since that brutal GGG knockout where he suffered a broken eye-socket. It was an accumulative beat-down (far more damaging long-term than a quick, one-shot KO) from a very heavy-handed prime GGG - and I was hoping that fight would've been stopped sooner because it's hard for fighters to come back from *that* kind of dismantling.

Since then - when Brook gets brought to that dark place - it really takes the wind out of his sails (as it would for anybody). But he's always game (and shows flashes of elitism) while he's fresh.

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