Brook wins lopsided decision over tough N'dou

Kell Brook won a lopsided and unanimous points decision over Lovemore N’dou last night and took the vacant WBA Intercontinental welterweight title.

Boxing at a sold out Hillsborough Leisure Centre in his home city of Sheffield, ‘Special K’ discovered what dozens of other boxers know already – that Sydney-based South African N’dou is one tough hombre.

Brook (10st 6lbs 4oz) took the first round, dodging N’dou’s wild and telegraphed left hook and countering nicely. I gave the 39 year-old visitor a share of the second as he got on the foot front and looked to make things difficult for Brook, younger than his opponent by 14 years.

Brook took the next two rounds, looking to obey trainer Dominic Ingle in the corner by working off his jab. Brook wasn’t loading up but showed great accuracy at times and opened up when he felt like it. N’dou (10st 6lbs 12oz) got through with a right hook in the fourth; Brook retaliated with a hard left hook and N’dou seemed to feel its effects. N’dou dug in, found success with a left hook and built on that by catching Brook with several head punches. The main flaw in Brook’s make up is that he is too easy to hit; it’s just that most of his fights don’t go long enough for it to become a problem. He has a good chin and likes a scrap too so set himself and cracked N’dou in return.

N’dou built on the partial success of round four by clattering Brook with a clubbing overhand right in the fifth. Brook shook his head to let his fans know he wasn’t troubled and that their collective intake of breath was unnecessary. Every time the local man opened up, N’dou came back and the older man did enough to take this session.

It was to be his last success on the scorecards as Brook swept the rest of the rounds.

Brook had an excellent sixth round, perhaps the most impressive of his career thus far. He hit N’dou with almost every shot in the book and moved him from corner to corner. For the first time in the bout, the African was reduced to holding in order to buy some respite. Just before the bell, Brook rocked N’dou’s head back with an uppercut before then raising his arm aloft to the crowd. He enjoyed that one.

The next few rounds followed a pattern – N’dou would start quite quickly and Brook boxed in a controlled, orthodox fashion, punishing the South African when he made ever more sporadic and wilder attacks.

From the tenth round onwards, it just became a matter of whether Brook could send a message out to the rest of the welterweight division by stopping Brook. Trainer Ingle waved his man forward from halfway through the tenth and by the last round, N’dou was simply focused on survival. Bleeding from the nose and breathing heavily, he used all his experience to tie Brook in knots and the warnings he received for holding from referee Victor Loughlin were simply an occupational hazard. Brook grinned towards the end of the session knowing the veteran was going to deservedly hear the final bell.

Scores of 118-111 and 119-110 twice were announced, my card agreeing with the latter tally. Brook moves to 24-0, N'dou 48-13-2.

Detractors of Brook now have the opportunity to criticise him as his much vaunted power didn’t bring a stoppage, plus he got hit too often. Fans shouldn’t worry about the former as N’dou is one of the game’s most durable warriors. His defence is something he needs to tune up. All in all though, a successful first night for Brook under his new promoters, Matchroom Sport.

Before the main event, boxing paid its 'ten bells' tribute to former Sheffield pro Thomas Bradley, 38, who was killed in a traffic accident in the city on Monday evening. Bradley, who boxed around the light-welter mark under the nickname of 'T-Bar' was hit by a car whilst riding on his motorbike. He compiled a 10-4-1 record between 1995 and 1999, was a very popular man and MC John McDonald's first mention of his name had the tightly-knit Sheffield boxing community present immediately standing and clapping their hands. Thomas will be missed.

If there is one man boxing professionally today who is even more guaranteed that N’dou to hear the final bell, it is probably Ismail Abdoul. Hatton Promotions heavyweight prospect Richard ‘The Inferno’ Towers (17st 1lbs) followed the blown up Belgian cruiserweight (15st 5lbs) round the ring for almost the entire 24 minutes of their contest but failed to make a dent in him. The Sheffielder won an 80-72 shut out decision, every round following a similar pattern of Towers jabbing and boxing nicely with Abdoul content to tick over.

Abdoul is a very clever defensive fighter, catching a lot of work on his gloves and moving out of range instinctively. For anyone who has seen him fight before, Abdoul basically has what Teddy Atlas calls a ‘silent agreement’ when he’s brought in to be the opponent. If you want to rack up a points win, fine. Crack in a shot he considers to be too hard and he’ll fire back. If you want the stoppage – which he’s never suffered in his now 40-22-2 log, you better be prepared to get in the trenches for it.

Towers wasn’t interested in a tear up and concentrated on using the contest as a learning experience to rack up some rounds.

“I’m happy with that,” said the big man afterwards. “I wanted to use it as an opportunity to get some rounds in the bank and I’m pleased I got eight rounds in.

“I’m not in this game to knock everybody out, I’m in it to learn.

“I’m straight back in the gym after this and would like another fight soon.”

Towers moves to 11-0.

Liverpool lightweight Lee Jennings ‘trumanated’ previously unbeaten Brummie Chris ‘The Trumanator’ Truman after 2:06 of the first round.

Looking at the records before their contest (Truman 7-0; Jennings 4-2) one might have expected the opposite result. Jennings (9st 6lbs 6oz) walked out from the bell with a steely determination and showed absolutely no fear of Truman (9st 7lbs). The Scouser bossed things from the off and hit home with several tasty shots.

A right hook to Truman’s unguarded chin got through and dropped him heavily. He got to his feet and perhaps could have continued though wasn’t in the best shape. Given the one-sided nature of the previous two minutes, referee Michael Alexander thought it wise to save him for another day.

Report on the rest of the undercard to follow