Kell Brook TKO's Luiz Galarza: Does He Have the Skills to Be a Top Welterweight?

Kell Brook did exactly what he set out to do on the Ward-Froch undercard. Brook not only looked impressive against Luiz Galarza, but stopped the fight early.

Brook's victory has proved to be a solitary ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast year for British boxing.

Brook didn't take too long to get going, showing no nerves of what was without doubt the biggest fight of his career.

A thumping right in the first round looked to have hurt Galarza, who had to hold on to see the end of the opening round.

In the second, Brook peppered his opponents with jabs, scoring seemingly at will. Galarza tried to establish himself in the fight, hitting Brook flush with a left, but it didn't appear to affect the Brit.

Galarza showed some serious guts in the third, after being hit with a beautiful combination, his legs looked ready to betray him, but the Puerto Rican refused to die. Despite some sweetly-timed left hooks from Brook, he held on to the end of the round.

Brook would not be denied however, and came out for the fourth looking to end the fight. He threw a variety of lightning punches to which Galarza had no reply. Again, Galarza managed to stick out the round.

The fight reached a crescendo in the fifth round with Brook unleashing a flurry of flush punches that stunned his opponent. Again Galarza would not go down, but referee Allan Huggins had seen enough, calling an end to the fight with 1:38 of the fifth round gone.

Brook and promoter Eddie Hearn now hope to secure a world title fight in 2012.

With Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather holding two of the four welterweight titles between them, the two other options would be IBF champ Andre Berto or WBA king Vyacheslav Senchenko.

In truth, his fight with Luiz Galarza will do little to suggest how far he can go. Galarza had been hand picked not to trouble the Brit in his first fight on American soil.

A fight with Berto and would mark a real step up in class for Brook. It is a step up that he may not yet be ready for. Berto has power that Brook has not yet had to deal with, and at the moment he would have to be a heavy favourite.

Vyacheslav Senchenko provides his own problems. Brook has the skills to beat the Ukrainian and this would be the easiest route to the title as far as boxing is concerned.

The trouble with Senchenko would be luring him into a fight with Brook. At present, Senchenko only fights a couple of times a year and has padded his record by only fighting bums since he won the belt.

Outside of title fights, the most mentioned is Amir Khan. Before recent fights each of them has had, Khan would have been clear favourite. Now I think it is questionable whether Khan would have the power to trouble the welterweight division.

If Brook could beat Khan, then he would have established himself as a real player at 147 pounds. With or without that fight, it looks as though Britain could have a new superstar in 2012.