The 27 year-old overcame some big shots and bullying tactics from Brook early on to break the Briton’s OTHER eye socket during the fight’s mid-rounds.
Brook signalled to cornerman Dominic Ingle that something was wrong around the eighth round following a back and forth battle. From then on, it was all Spence as Brook struggled with the injury.
The damage, this time to the left eye, adds to surgery undergone on Brook’s right eye in losing to Gennady Golovkin last September in London.
With the hometown crowd backing him all the way, Brook bravely fought on like the warrior he is but went down in the tenth and finally succumbed to the severity of his injury in the eleventh.
Howard Foster counted ten as Brook couldn’t see clearly and ‘The Truth’ Spence was crowned the new champion, pushing to 22-0 in the process.
In the co-feature, George Groves became world super-middleweight champion at the fourth time of asking in spectacular fashion with an enthralling victory over Fedor Chudinov.
Both fighters went hell for leather from the opening bell in a ding-dong battle but Groves eventually wore down the solid Russian who had barely moved from the Londoner’s punches in the first five rounds.
A shuddering blow in the sixth started things off, and as Groves smelt blood, ‘The Saint’ was relentless in finishing the job.
Referee Steve Gray had no choice but to call the fight off with Chudinov on his feet as the ex-title holder just wouldn’t go down.
Groves could now be in line for a rematch with James DeGale which would see the big rivals each bring a belt to the table.
Phil Jay is Editor of World Boxing News. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay
