The week in words

We start our round up in the midlands with Wayne Elcock (19-3) retaining his British middleweight title after the fight was brought to a halt in the second round because of a deep cut under the eye of Darren Mcdermott (15-1-1). Mcdermott had started the fight brightly and was causing the champion problems with his straight jab, but a nasty clash of heads ended the fight with the ringside doctor telling the referee to stop the fight to the relief of Elcock’s camp and the dismay of McDermott’s camp who thought that they could have stopped the bleeding if given time. Surely a rematch must be the first thing on both fighters mind, as neither was able to show there true potential.

Last night in Birmingham Amir Khan (18-0) took another step onto world glory after defeating the resilient Michael Gomez (35-9) with a fifth round stoppage. The fight was embroiled with excitement, right from the first bell. Khan had Gomez shaken in the first with his blistering hand speed and a very lax Gomez absorbed many punches before finally succumbing to the canvas and taken an eight count.

Sceptic’s at ringside would have claimed that Gomez would not make it out to fight in the second round. He did, and also sent the crowd into silence when he sensationally caught Khan with an over the top left which sent Khan buckling to the floor.

The former British champion and WBU world champion didn’t stop there taking the fight to his younger opponent (10 years older than Khan), causing him distress in the forth with a rib breaking shot that sent anguish through the silver medallist’s face, but Khan showed the heart of a champion putting together a flurry of punches to put Gomez on the back foot, and eventually end the round in the stronger position.

The fifth round started with Gomez looking like he was now running on empty and was now fighting on heart alone, he was caught early with a body shot that forced him to take an eight count. Khan finally seized his opportunity and started unleashing punch after punch, not all were connecting but it was enough for the referee to intervene and stop the brave Gomez from taking any more punishment.

Khan carries on his mission to world glory but last night was a lesson in respect and gives Khan another chance to have another one or two fights before making the step up to the world stage.

He should defiantly have learnt more from this fight than his previous 17 fights (possibly some humility), I hope he and his new team of trainers are able to draw on the positives and help Khan fulfil his potential.

Last night was also a return to winning ways for the new WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler, Kessler showed his durability and class to win the title with a twelfth round stoppage of previously undefeated Dimitri Sartison. Kessler had Sartison on the canvas in the eleventh round but made sure of victory in the 12th and now means he will face mandatory challenger German based Danilo Haussler.

On the under card the promising Gennady Golovkin (14-0)  fighting out of Germany but of Kazak decent saw off Amir Amari (13-10-1) by scores of 80-72, 80-72, 79-72. The fight was a one sided affair with the highly rated Golovkin asserting himself as the aggressor and enforcing his growing reputation in Europe as the man to watch. He recently moved up to ninth in the WBC rankings.