The end was chillingly methodical, like watching a back-street surgeon at work. Crash. Back up. Admire the butchery. “Hmmm, still not done. Never mind all the blood and that busted eye, pass me another blunt instrument?”
It was also macabrely surreal. As blows rained down upon his stricken charge, trainer Dominic Ingle stood politely waving the white towel, like a diner waving a napkin to get the attention of a waiter.
For several seconds, the referee seemed transfixed. So might you, if you witnessed such butchery up close.
When Ingle finally remembered boxing convention and threw the towel into the ring, the sound of Gennady Golovkin’s blunt instruments hitting various parts of Kell Brook’s body – like the frenzied bashing of a bass drum – gave way to boos.
When the referee waved it off, Brook looked like he wanted to join in.
But Ingle’s intervention in the fifth round wasn’t a moment too soon. Busted eye, seeing four Golovkins when one was too many, Brook had taken more than enough.
Ingle knows his fighter better than anyone. They took the risk, banked the millions, gave it their best shot and came up short. “Let’s live to fight another day.”
