By Andy Clark: British and WBO intercontinental light middleweight champion Brian Rose came through a bloody encounter against Javier Maciel, en-route to securing his first world title fight against the winner of Andrade/Martirosyan.
Both fighters took turns in closely edging the early rounds. Rose found regular success with his crisp jab, while Maciel found success to the body and landed some solid uppercuts. Maciel opened but a nasty cut along the bridge of Rose’s nose in round three and took the fight to Rose in a competitive round four.
The see-saw battle continued throughout the middle rounds. Rose was the more accurate fighter but Maciel continued to turn up the pressure, throwing hurtful punches to the body and head. Rose’s nose continued to worsen going into the eighth round.
Maciael landed a quality right hand to rock Rose in the eighth. Maciel followed up with a ferocious barrage of punches to the body and head. Rose, with his tight defence, did well to not take significant punishment and came back well, landing some quality shots of his own. Rose finished the round stronger as a tired Maciel looked to have expended a tremendous amount of energy looking to take Rose out.
Maciel seemed to take a round off in round nine, as Rose took the round comfortably and Rose again did enough to win round ten. Rose landed the more accurate punches and managed to block the majority of Maciel’s increasingly wild punches.
Maciel made one last attempt to take Rose out in the eleventh round. Maciel backed Rose against the ropes and landed another powerful right hand which landed flush. Maciel followed up with another barrage of powerful hooks and uppercuts, this time landing some thudding shots, but Rose absorbed everything Maciel threw at him.
Rose ended the final round in front in another close back and forth round. The fight ended with neither fighter openly claiming the fight their own and there was a nervous wait for the judges scores. The official judges at ringside scored the contest 117-111 (Rose), 115-113 (Maciel) and 116-113 (Rose).
Blackpool’s Brian Rose won via split decision and the emotion was there for all to see as the decision was read aloud. Rose sank to his knees in tears of joy as he secured his first world title shot against the winner of Andrade/Martirosyan in 2014.
Follow Brian Rose on twitter @Brian_Lion_Rose
