Sheffield’s Kell Brook popped Argentine Hector Saldivia like a balloon at the Steel City’s Motorpoint Arena, Saturday. After being steadily and systematically softened up, an already sickened “El Tigre” (based in Oxnard, Calif.) walked onto a ramrod straight left that put him onto his back and, after appearing to over-egg the wobbly-leg routine at the 0:28 mark, he was escorted back to his corner by referee Howard Foster (England). Brook won at a canter here and in doing so he fulfilled another in a bunch of nonsensical mandates from the alphabet despots he has plumped to appease.
Saldivia had already hit the deck in the 1st after Brook unfurled a cute right uppercut that zipped the visitor backwards onto his pants as though he’d trodden on a high-speed running machine. With an approach built on clubbing, eager-fisted aggression, Saldivia (146 ½) had planned to overrun Brook (146) in the same manner American Carson Jones almost managed to back in July. Brook, though, had worked hard to improve his condition and nutrition in the interim, which left Saldivia, 41-3 (32), questioning his method while eating right hooks.
Brook, 29-0 (19), must be wondering whether the alphabet boys have been reading Joseph Campbell’s "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" when administering him tasks. He will hope to have endured his final, final eliminator before being granted a crack at their freshly crowned titlist, Missouri’s Devon Alexander. A grudge match against Bolton’s Amir Khan meanwhile would likely be a more exciting and profitable venture and one difficult to ignore for very much longer.
Television: Sky Sports
Promoter: Matchroom
