By Elliot Raines: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn was ecstatic about cruiserweight prospect Pat Brown\u2019s second-round knockout win over 37-year-old former WBA interim light heavyweight champion Felix Valera (24-9, 21 KOs) last Saturday night, calling him an \u201cabsolute Diamond\u201d in his performance on the undercard at the\u00a0Caribe Royale Orlando, Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n
(Credit: Zachariah Delgado Matchroom Boxing)<\/p>\n
Eddie Hearn\u2019s \u201cAbsolute Diamond\u201d Shines Bright<\/p>\n
After a slow first round, the 25-year-old Pat Brown (5-0, 5 KOs) dropped Valera three times in round two, prompting referee Alicia Collins to halt the fight at 1:29 of the round. After the third knockdown from a right uppercut from Brown that left Valera face down on the canvas, the referee Collins didn\u2019t bother to give a count. She waved it off at 1:29 of the round.<\/p>\n
In the first minute of round two, Brown connected with a big left-hand temple shot, causing Valera to back away and go down in a delayed reaction. Up to the count of eight, Valera\u2019s eyes looked glazed, and one could tell that he wasn\u2019t going to last much longer.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s Crude Power Gets the Job Done<\/p>\n
Moments later, Valera went down again, this time from a left hook. After the referee gave Valera a once-over, she allowed the fight to continue. Instead of fighting smartly by moving and tying up Brown, Valera went all out, throwing combinations, connecting with a couple, but then eating a right uppercut to the head that sent him down face-first on the canvas. This time, the referee Collins halted the fight. She had no choice.<\/p>\n
Valera was so hurt that and needed to be peeled off the canvas by Brown and the referee. It was a classy move by Brown to help Valera up because he was in bad shape and looked like he couldn\u2019t have gotten up without help.<\/p>\n
\u201cManchester\u2019s Rocky Marciano\u201d Is Born<\/p>\n
\u201cIn his fifth fight. To go through a guy like Valera, a former world champion [WBA interim light heavyweight belt-bolder from 2015 to 2016],\u201d said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to DAZN<\/a>, praising cruiserweight Pat Brown\u2019s second-round knockout win over 37-year-old Felix Valera last Saturday night.<\/p>\n Valera looked so bad last night that it was hard to see how good Brown is because he had such a poor opponent in front of him. From watching Brown\u2019s performance, I saw a 30-ish looking fighter destroying a hapless journeyman that didn\u2019t belong in the ring with him. It was hard for me to believe that Pat Brown is only 25, as he looks in his early 30s at least.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw him out last time against Golden Boy\u2019s prospect Tristan Kalkreuth, who was a very good fighter. He [Valera] gave him a really hard 10 rounds. Pat does the same thing every time from the first round. He comes out and measures and measures. To me, tonight, that\u2019s my new name for him, \u2018Manchester\u2019s Rocky Marciano,\u2019\u201d said Hearn about the 25-year-old Pat Brown.<\/p>\n Pat\u2019s style of fighting is rather crude and Neanderthal-like, similar in a way to the late former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano. With his lack of hand speed and mobility, Brown has no choice but to continue fighting the way he does because he\u2019s never going to possess the blazing hand speed of Jai Opetaia or the mobility of some of the more spry cruiserweights.<\/p>\n He is what he is, a Neanderthal-esque slugger and not a young-looking one at that. Hearn needs to move Pat Brown as fast as he can because he might not have a long shelf life in his career.<\/p>\n A Quartz Gem, Not a Diamond?<\/p>\n \u201cThis kid is going to go all the way. He\u2019s such a massive problem for every cruiserweight in the world. We\u2019ve got this absolute diamond on our hands in Pat Brown. Tonight, he made his U.S debut in his fifth fight. They know we\u2019ve got something special. He\u2019s 25,\u201d said Hearn, banging on about Brown.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t see Brown as a \u201cdiamond.\u201d He\u2019s more of a quartz gem than a diamond in my book. Brown will do well as long as Hearn matches him carefully.<\/p>\n Like heavyweight contender Moses Itauma, Pat Brown didn\u2019t have much of an amateur career. He had 23 fights under his belt in the amateur ranks before turning pro. He hadn\u2019t looked like 24k gold as an amateur the way some fighters do before entertaining the professional ranks.<\/p>\n Elliot Raines has covered British and European boxing since 2010. Known for his sharp pen and low tolerance for hype, Raines dissects the sport\u2019s politics, promoters, and paper champions with dry precision.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb – Boxing Results<\/a> \u00bb Boxing Results: Pat Brown flattens Felix Valera in two rounds, hailed as \u201cManchester\u2019s Rocky Marciano\u201d by Eddie Hearn<\/p>\n Last Updated on 11\/02\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Elliot Raines: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn was ecstatic about cruiserweight prospect Pat Brown\u2019s second-round knockout win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-239775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}