Last
night Sheffield lad Kell Brook
fought American Erroll Spence Jr in
the defence of his IBF Welterweight belt. I went with a few mates; It
was the first time I'd been to see a professional, televised boxing
match. We got tickets to the Bramhall Lane event early, giving us
seats on the actual pitch fairly close to the ring.
We
watched quite a few of the undercards as the stadium filled up,
including Olympian Lawrence Okolie
making light work of Rudolph Helesic.
The penultimate fight: Brit George Groves beating Fedor Chudinov
for the vacant WBA super-middleweight title. Groves has had a number
of title shots- this has been his first successful one.
Here's
'Special K' Kell Brook entering his hometown's football arena to
rapturous applause... and Kanye.
The
result wasn't what we wanted: Brook suffered a stoppage in the 11th,
after struggling with a broken eyesocket.
So
Britain' boxing community has lost one world title but gained
another. An electric atmosphere, although a rainy one. The constant
blue skies over northern England didn't hold, and clouded over just
when we needed it not to: when we were in t-shirts in an outdoor
arena. Cue a few awkward shoulder shrugs and two-steps.
In
the crowd: Prince Naseem Hamed,
looking... typically out of shape.
The
sound in the stadium wasn't a strength of the production- pre and
post fight interviews weren't always audible, but the night as a
whole was brilliant.
We
went for drinks after: Soyo and Beg Borrow Steal were decent, but
Reflex was a cock fest.
A
fun weekend. Glad we got it organised!
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