DREAMCATCHER
Neil Devey watches Brophy proves he’s a supermiddleweight force to be reckoned with
DAVID BROPHY made a mockery of the world rankings and confirmed his rehabilitation from last year’s loss to George Groves with an upset win in Australia last Friday.
The 26-year-old Scot claimed the Commonwealth super-middleweight crown when he stopped Zac Dunn with a ruinous assault in the seventh round at the Melbourne Pavilion.
The hometown champion, victorious in all 23 of his bouts beforehand including 18 early, was making the first defence of the title he claimed by outpointing Sheffield’s Liam Cameron at the same venue in November.
The belief Down Under going into the 12-rounder was that Dunn, also 26, would be heading for a world title shot once he had dealt with Brophy.
This was no idle talk. Managed by former IBF super-featherweight world champion Barry Michael, “Dynamo” was ranked No.5 in the world by the IBF, WBC and WBO and hailed as Australia’s next world star.
That meant little to the challenger from Caldercruix, however. In what was his third outing since he was outclassed in four rounds by Groves 11 months ago, Brophy took a leaf out of the Londoner’s book by going to the body to break down the Aussie. It worked a treat.
The two orthodox boxers looked well matched as they shared the opening exchanges. Dunn, a pressure fighter backed by a vocal crowd, was neat and tidy and keen to get on the front foot, while Brophy was unflustered as he settled into the contest.
Yet Dunn’s tendency to keep his elbows up would have flashed like a beacon to Brophy, and in the third he laid the groundwork for victory with a left to the flank that hurt the Victorian. The distress signal Dunn gave off was immediately detected and the visitor followed up with a series of attacks to the body in a real softening up process.
This was not in the script and there were some concerned faces in the Aussie corner at the end of the round.
Brophy’s trainer Billy Nelson had said after the beating from Groves that his boxer “would not lose again” and that assertion didn’t look in danger on Friday, despite Dunn, who finished the fourth well, coming on strong in the fifth round as he worked head and body.
But Brophy knew Dunn was always vulnerable to a downstairs counter and when the Scot scored again in the sixth, he swarmed all over the Australian who was suddenly in serious danger of being stopped.
Dunn survived but with the contest at only the halfway stage, how was he going to see out the remainder of the fight? He didn’t make it through the next round.
Instead, big bookies’ outsider Brophy produced another sickening body shot and this time Dunn went over.
He bravely beat the count but Brophy wasn’t going to waste his chance and he piled in before Dunn’s corner threw in the towel to save their man from further grief.
Brophy moved to 19-1-1 with this terrific away success. It was just his third stoppage win and perhaps his lack of KOS was a reason Dunn’s connections did not see him as an undue threat to their man’s global ambitions. Big mistake and a very costly one.
“Zac will bounce back and David will undoubtedly get some good fights as a result of his win and perhaps a world title shot,” show promoter Brian Amatruda said. “I think there will be some heavy partying in Scotland in a few days.”
Dunn is talented enough to rebuild, but he also has a long way to climb back to the heights of top five in the world.
He could do worse than take stock in a similar way to Brophy after he suffered his first loss. Another example he could follow is to get on his bike. The problem for many Aussie boxers who stay at home is while they can boost their rankings by picking up regional belts, they often come undone when stepping up in levels. Dunn has boxed just once outside his own state of Victoria, a split decision win over journeyman Derrick Findley in New York. On this showing he is not in the class of the elite of the UK such as Groves, James Degale and Callum Smith.
THE VERDICT Brophy upsets the applecart in style to reignite his career, and expose Dunn’s world championship ambitions.