England’s Kell Brook stretched his perfect record to 33 straight wins by beating Shawn Porter by a majority decision on Saturday to capture the IBF’s world welterweight title.
The 28-year-old Brook, who was taking part in the first title fight of his career, improved to 33-0 with 22 knockouts as he handed Porter the first loss of his career.
“I took it off him in his backyard,” Brook said. “I was nine years old dreaming of becoming a world champion and now I am.”
Photo: AFP
Brook, of Sheffield, England, won handily on two judges scorecards, 117-111 and 116-112, while a third scored it a draw, 114-114.
Brook is hoping this victory in the 147-pound division sets up a megafight in the UK with former two-time world champion Amir Khan.
“I think [Khan] can get in the queue now. Everyone knows I am top dog in England now,” Brook said.
Khan reacted to the bout via social media on Saturday, tweeting: “Well deserved @SpecialKBrook get in there!”
American Porter was making the second defense of the IBF title he won in December last year. Porter dropped to 26-1-1 with 15 knockouts.
“He took my belt tonight,” Porter said. “I want the rematch. I don’t care where we have to go to get it done.”
Both fighters were cut near the eye due to accidental head-butts over the 12-round battle at the StubHub Center in south central Los Angeles.
Porter defeated Paulie Malignaggi his last time in the ring in April with a technical knockout in the fourth round.
Porter’s record received a blemish after a draw to Julio Diaz in 2012, but he reeled off four consecutive wins from there leading up to the Brook bout on Saturday. Those wins included a rematch victory against Diaz and a unanimous decision win over then-titleholder Devon Alexander.
On the undercard, cancer survivor Anthony Dirrell (27-0) snatched Australia’s Sakio Bika’s (32-6) WBC super middleweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision in a rematch win.
Dirrell, who underwent chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008, earned his first world title.
American Omar Figueroa (24-0-1) defended his WBC lightweight title belt with a ninth-round knockout of Mexico’s Daniel Estrada (32-3-1).
Figueroa was making the second defense of his title.
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