Brook showed plenty of positives last night, but also showed some worrying weaknesses. Brook has good speed, and looks like he throws with solid power. He displayed some good combinations, and a mean uppercut aswell. He was patient and calculated when needed, and showed he could go the 12 rounds comfortably. Now for the weaknesses. He displayed virtually no inside game. His defense (especially his left side) was pretty much horrible last night. He "uses" his left shoulder as his main defense on his left side, and it basically doesn't work. He could maybe be a touch more active aswell. Edit: Also, Brook really does need to start using some good upperbody movement. It will help him avoid punches, and make it easier to land his solid body shots. He is still learning, and I was impressed by him last night...even though the only risk from Ndou was he could have made Brook look bad. He is far from the "complete fighter" like was mentioned last night. No point posting scorecard, Ndou won 1 round on my card I believe. Now for Macklin. Not really going to focus on the negatives because Macklin put almost everything into that performance...and I was very impressed. My scorecard read...6 rounds to 5 for Sturm, with 1 round even. Macklin's gameplan from the start was to attack the body, and he didn't half go for it. He maybe neglected it towards the middle rounds, but it was impressive stuff...it certainly affected the breathing of Sturm somewhat. Sturm showed the classier stuff during the second half of the bout, but Macklin's workrate was great. Sturm would catch him with a clean shot, and Macklin would jump straight back on him throwing 3-4 shots (landing or not)...Sturm would catch him with 2-3 clean shots, and Macklin would jump on him throwing 4-5 shots (landing or not). Macklin got his chance at a World title, and he put his heart and soul into the effort, not doing enough to win it IMO...but a great performance anyway. And what a fight. I haven't yet seen the Alexander v Matthyse bout yet, so can't comment on it. :good
Oh I forgot, I didn't say anything controversial. Erm..."Anyone who disagrees with my analysis is just a ****ing hater. You don't know **** about boxing!!".
I was thinking the same thing about Brook :good He showed spots of world class, but his upper body and head movement needs working on. No doubt they'll be reviewing this problem when they look back at the tape. I wouldn't mind seeing him take on Paulie Malignaggi next. As for Macklin, he did everything right for me last night. Jumped on his guy immediately, and worked the body beautifully. It was unfortunate that his punches began losing snap as the fight progressed, but he put up an amazing effort despite losing by just two rounds on my scorecard. Would love to see a rematch.
:good Malignaggi is a good shout, it's definitely a style that would test him, and show the rest of us were he is at. He's not fighting at his best weight, is almost certainly past prime...and offers very little in terms of power to trouble Brook. But, like I said, stylewise...it could be interesting.
Some intelligent boxing chat here. Makes a change! Yep was impressed with Brook's offensive display, puts combinations together nicely, with great pop on his shots. Ndou is a tough ****er but Brook had him hurt big time in the 12th, so the boy can hit. Agree with you guys, defense needs some work and there is that ingle trait of lunging at times, could walk right into a counter. Should move the head a little more and he can be caught a little flat footed at times but I understand he likes to sit down on his punches but there are times he's gonna need to be on his toes a little more. I would give Brook an 8 out of 10 for last night. Room for improvement. But I like what I see.
Good shout about the lunging in, I also noticed how he likes to square up/change his stance when he gets his opponent up against the ropes. This could be worked on. But yeah, I pretty much agree with your post. :thumbsup
