By Terence Dooley
Brian Rose moved to 23-1-1 (7) in front of a packed house at Blackpool's Winter Gardens on Saturday night after beating Joachim Alcine by twelfth-round TKO on an Eddie Hearn-promoted bill. Blackpool's Rose (153¾lbs) won the vacant WBO Inter-Continental title despite the spirited resistance of his Quebec-based rival. Alcine (152½lbs), a former WBA world titlist, protested when experienced referee Richie Davies waved it over at 0:59 of the round yet the visitor had failed to fire back when under pressure from Rose.
Alcine falls to 33-4-1 (19), his team said he will drop down to 147lbs. Rose is eying world-level, he hopes that the Inter-Continental belt will boost his status and confirmed that he is likely to vacate the British light-middleweight that he won outright when registering a decision win over Sam Webb at the same venue in December.
“It looks that way because Liam Smith has been made mandatory and I can't keep hold of the belt if I want to go to world level, and that's what I want now — I'll let other fighters fight for it,” said Rose when speaking to BoxingScene about his next move.
“Liam said something I respected the other day, he said he wants to fight the champion and be the best, and I've proven myself to be the best, so fair play and respect to him, but I have got my own career and family to think about. It is about making the right decision and taking the right step, and that's why I'm with [promoter] Eddie [Hearn] now because I believe he can help me do that.”
With Nathan Cleverly easing to an impressive WBO light-heavyweight world title win over Robin Krasniqi at Wembley Arena on a Frank Warren show on the same night, Dereck Chisora stopped Hector Alfredo Avila in nine on the same bill, and Tyson Fury’s up-and-down exploits in scoring a seventh-round KO over Steve Cunningham in New York, British boxing is shaping up well after a slow start to the year.
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