Brian Rose battling to keep career alive in Carson Jones rematch

Brian Rose will be seeking redemption for his shock first-round knock-out at the hands of American Carson Jones when the light-middleweight fighters collide in their anticipated rematch in Hull.

The 30-year-old Birmingham-born fighter was sensationally stopped in the opening round of his first bout with Oklahoma’s Jones on Valentine’s Day earlier this year, and is 11/8 with Coral to gain revenge by knock-out or TKO this time out.

Rose has proved he can bounce back from defeat before in his career, with the former world title challenger having recovered from a damaging loss to Max Maxwell to topple his previous opponent two years later in 2012, during a British title defence.

“I have to win this fight and there are no ifs or buts about it,” stated Rose. “I have come back from worse than this and everyone knows I have a big heart.

“A lot of people can’t come back from defeat – I can and I have proved it before. I want to clear up what I should have done in the first fight, and I have never been more determined in my life before a fight.”

The light-middleweight, nicknamed ‘the Lion’, was controversially stopped by Carson with only 30 seconds remaining in the first round of their initial bout, despite having been coasting, with the referee seemingly jumping in too early.

“Everybody said before the last fight that it was a mismatch and that I would beat Jones, and it didn’t happen. Now it will be regarded as a big fight,” continued Rose. “I am more confident than I was when I fought Max Maxwell for the second time after he had beaten me in the first fight.

“I beat Maxwell and I intend to do the same against Jones. There is no doubt Jones is a good fighter – he took Kell Brook the whole way and he beat me in a round in Blackpool, although I thought that it was stopped too early.

“I hurt him early in the first round in Blackpool and maybe I got too excited after that. That is normally not like me, and I will go back to being cautious, which is how I normally approach things.”

Rose’s rematch is part of the Rumble on the Humber at the KC Stadium, where Luke Campbell will contest Tommy Coyle in an all-Hull WBC world lightweight title official eliminator, and American Jones is 9/4 to stop his foe again.

“I know I will stop him again,” declared Jones. “I don’t know what round but it’s going to come. He wasn’t a threat in the first fight and he won’t be on Saturday. He’s a decent fighter but he won’t trouble me.

“What will Brian do after I beat him again? That’s up to him, it’s not my concern. I know how it feels to lose and I wouldn’t want anyone to give up on pursuing their dreams. But I don’t think he is cut out for the top.

“Maybe the fight could have carried on but that’s not down to me, that’s the referees job and he did what he thought was right.

“My daughter punches harder than he does. He caught me and I was a little stunned, but not hurt. I always start slow. He doesn’t have big punching power so he wasn’t going to be able to finish me off, but I knew I had to jump on him early when I hurt him in order to catch him when he was wobbling.

“If it was stopped early then it was stopped early for me too because I would have knocked his head off in the rest of the round.”

Jones is 10/1 to secure a points victory in the pair’s rematch, while Rose is 33/1 to gain the ultimate revenge by stopping his American opposition in the first round, as he seeks to keep his fighting career alive.