York Hall

Scott and I went to the fights on Friday night at the historic York Hall Leisure Centre in Bethnal Green. Awesome venue and atmosphere.





The main event was the British welterweight title fight: Kell Brooks vs. Stuart Elwell.

The Telegraph summarizes it better than I could:

"Elwell looked out of his league, the 31-year-old felled by a jabbing hook 30 seconds into the fight, then punished again with a straight right. Before the first round was over, he was down again, this time by a left cross, and was given a standing count by referee Marcus McDonnell. Elwell ended the round looking very shaky indeed.

When Brook wobbled the legs of his opponent again in the second with a left, right, left, as Brook picked his shots, referee McDonnell had seen enough. It was the right decision. Elwell was in no position to continue."

Here's a very poor quality video from my mobile phone. You can't really see much, but if you turn up your speaker you can hear a very loud, very drunk spectator shouting advice to the boxers (something useful, along the lines of "fucking come on!"). Helps you get a feel for York Hall.




Brook was amazing to watch. Swift, powerful, focused, yet totally serene. Tough, both mentally and physically. Which is why I suppose was surprised/amused to hear his voice in the post fight interview: