By Sheldan Keay
British boxing was heavily featured tonight, and while it may have been a good night for one of our fighters, sadly it wasn't for another. Matthew Macklin failed in his bid to win the WBA middleweight championship, after a controversial split decision loss to champion Felix Sturm. However, Kell Brook put on a great display to push Lovemore N'Dou to his limits on his way to a unanimous points victory over the seasoned veteran.
Macklin got off to a great start in his fight with Sturm, hitting the German with punishing shots to the body that left his chest covered in redness and could very easily have left Sturm with several broken ribs. Macklin continued to look strong going into the mid way part of the fight, however Sturm then began to gain his composure and showed why he was the reigning champion. Each round featured some good exchanges with each boxer, and could have easily been given either way. However, due to the great start that Macklin made, most media scoring the fight had him as the victor, this was not to be though as the judges awarded Sturm a split decision, with scores of 116-112 to Sturm from two judges, and 115-113 to Macklin from the other.
Speaking about the fight, Macklin said "I was very strong, stronger than Felix and I won, no doubt, I hope Felix will give me another fight, maybe in November." It would be hard to find somebody who would disagree with whether or not Macklin deserved a rematch, as the performance he put in showed exactly why he earned this world title fight, and showed exactly why his trainer Joe Gallagher was on a 49 fight winning streak as a trainer.
Despite the disappointment in Germany, Kell Brook was able to make the night partly succesful, due to the great performance that he put on in his native Sheffield. In a fight that many said would be the hardest of his career, Brook was able to dominate N'Dou from bell to bell, and won all but 1 round on two of the judges score cards, with the third judge giving one more round to N'Dou. Despite never being stopped in his career, N'Dou was forced to clinch and hold Brook several times in order to try and stop the enslaught of attacks that he was facing, as Brook hurt N'Dou with punishing upper cut and haymakers.
Speaking about the fight, Brook said "I maybe said I'd stop him to hype it up and get people interested, but at the back of my mind I knew it would be a 12-round fight, It's a big learning curve in my career, my first 12-round fight. Maybe I held back a bit and there were some things I did wrong, but that's all learnt now." The win earned Brook the WBA inter-continental championship, and may leave him in prime position for a world title shot at the WBA belt. Current champion Viacheslav Senchenko defends the belt against Marco Antonio Avendano in Ukraine on August 20th, and the winner of that bout could see themselves defending the title against Brook in the UK before the end of the year.
All in all, both Macklin and Brook can be proud of their performances tonight, while Macklin may have come up short in his bid to become champion, he won the hearts of many with his gutsy performance, and with many feeling that he won the fight, he may have earned himself a rematch with Sturm. As for Brook, he again proved why many are tipping him for great things in the welterweight division, and with a world title shot within his grasp, he is showing why he is regarded as one of the UK's biggest prospects.
Follow Sheldan on Twitter: @SheldanKeay
