Brook walked Khan down from the start of the fight and established himself as the stronger fighter and easily stormed past the counterpunches of Khan.
An argument could have been for the fight being stopped even earlier as Khan was hurt in the fifth and Brook himself could have ended the fight earlier, had he used the jab more as he bullied his way into punching range as it seemed to me that every time that Brook smacked Khan with his jab, a right hand would land soon after.
My scorecard gave each of the first five rounds to Brook.
There is a rematch clause in the contract that was only activated with a Brook victory (Had Khan won there would have been no such option) that will be up to Khan and another sizable payday for both fighters would be received by the fighters but I don't think that it's a good idea for Khan because I don't see the result of this fight changing any and other than the extra cash for the two thirty-five-year-olds, I don't see either getting anything from a rematch.
For Khan, it's time to retire unless he absolutely has to take one more shot at Brook because a weak chin that has always plagued him isn't going to improve over time.
As for Brook, he looked impressive in victory but despite hurting Khan several times, Brook never knocked Khan down and it's fair to consider that Brook may have looked so good because Khan looked so bad.
Brook still should be matched carefully in his next fight (should Khan decide not to activate the rematch clause) because we still don't know how much Brook has left against championship-caliber competition.
Earlier in the day from Russia, a very good fight was ruined for American audiences on ESPN+ as Zaur Abdullaev knocked out former champion Jorge Linares in the final round in a WBC lightweight eliminator that might mean the end of Linares as a legitimate title contender.
Abdullaev knocked Linares down twice in the final round before the fight was stopped with only thirty-two seconds remaining of an action affair.
I had Abdullaev slightly ahead entering the final round 105-104 and the knockdowns would have put the fight away for Abdullaev even with the possible survival of Linares, so give Abdullaev credit for taking matters into his own hands and not allowing a close fight to reach the scorecards.
With the win, Abdullaev will place himself in the line for a rematch with Devin Haney for the WBC lightweight title in what would be a rematch with the fighter that handed Abdullaev his only loss via fourth-round knockout in 2019.
How could such an exciting fight be ruined?
How about by NOT SHOWING THE ENDING!
On a broadcast filled with the undercard often joining fights in mid-round, showing the same four awful commercials constantly, portions not having sound, skipping two decision announcements, and having maybe the worst commentator that I've ever heard (and not for his English either), the show was already one that wasn't very pleasing.
And then it got worse as the start of round twelve of a closely contested fight, the dreaded technical difficulties graphic arrived and no one saw Abdullaev's thrilling final round stoppage.
Just an absolutely awful broadcast and while I know it was only a purchase of another feed by ESPN and wasn't produced by them, with the problems that came with the show it was almost not worth seeing.
Almost.
In the evening from Tijuana Mexico, middleweight contender Jaime Munguia notched another semi-meaningless victory in a homecoming performance with a third round knockout of D'Mitrus Ballard.
Ballard entered the fight unbeaten but had never faced anyone of the level of Munguia and it showed as the first time Munguia hurt Ballard, he finished him off.
Ballard fought reasonably well in the first two rounds and I gave him both rounds, although the second could have been given to either man, Munguia landed a left hook in the third that stunned Ballard, and his following shots sent Ballard to the canvas face first.
Ballard showed heart in getting up but Munguia quickly jumped on Ballard to force the stoppage.
The less said about this one the better as Munguia has now fought five times at middleweight since giving up his WBO junior middleweight title and has yet to face a top ten contender with the past their primes Tureano Johnson and Gabriel Rosado standing as his best opponents.
In the co-feature, powerhitting lightweight William Zepeda easily, if sloppily, finished off veteran Luis Viedas in the third round in a fight that was more memorable for strange occurrences than the actual KO.
Viedas slipped on what appeared to be a small lake in a corner in the first round and injured his knee and was knocked down in the second round before a shove on Zepeda was scored a knockdown.
An infuriated Zepeda then shoved down Viedas and was deducted a point for his misdeed.
Zepeda knocked down Viedas twice in the third with Viedas being counted out on the second knockdown.
Zepeda could use a challenge in his next fight as Golden Boy hasn't done a great job of upgrading the competition for their prospects and contenders of late.
Boxing Challenge Total Points with this weeks points in parenthesies.
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