By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s still committed to matching his recently beaten fighter Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Amir Khan or Miguel Cotto in his next fight. Brook had a short operation to repair his broken right eye socket from his 5th round stoppage loss to unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10.
Hearn says Brook won’t be able to spar for 10 to 11 weeks. Hearn says Brook will be returning to the ring in the sprint of 2017, so we’re looking at him coming back potentially in time for Canelo’s next fight in May of next year.
With Canelo’s pay-per-view numbers for his recent fight against Liam Smith being disappointing on HBO, I think it’s not a good idea for Canelo to be fighting Kell Brook. The casual boxing fans in the States don’t know who Brook is, and the ones that do know him will likely not be excited at paying to see a fight between him and Canelo. I mean, how do you sell a fight between Canelo and a fighter that was just stopped in the 5th round in Kell Brook? Shouldn’t Canelo be fighting guys that are WINNING rather than LOSING like Brook?
If Canelo was just going to fight Brook on regular HBO, then I think it would be a decent fight. But I think it’s stupid to pick Brook for a fight on HBO PPV, because there’s no selling point for the fight. The only real intrigue in a Canelo-Brook fight is to see if Canelo can stop Brook faster than Golovkin did.
It might not be the smartest thing for Brook to come back from eye surgery against a big slugger like Canelo. I’m just saying. With that kind of injury, Brook might be better off returning to the ring against the lighter hitting Khan. Unfortunately, putting a fight together between Brook and Khan might prove to be difficult if not impossible.
I think Brook will get taken apart by Canelo if that’s who he winds up facing. Brook has his mind made up that he wants to take on a big name for his next fight. I think it’s stupid. We could see Brook quickly turned into a journeyman if Hearn is able to put him in with one good fighter after another, because I can’t see Brook beating the top guys at 154 like Cotto, Canelo, Charlo brothers, Julian Williams, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara, Demetrius Andrade or Charles Hatley.
Hearn said this to IFL TV:
“We’re looking at Cotto, Canelo or Khan for Kell. If he gets to the stage where those fights don’t happen, then maybe the Liam Smith fight. My instructions from Kell is to make the biggest fights in boxing. Liam is not one of those at the moment. Maybe in the future that fight can happen. I hope we can have a proper conversation with Team Khan. It’s still the number one fight I want to make. Cotto, I think is a great fight for Kell Brook. I had a couple of conversations with Roc Nation, saying we’re ready for that fight. Kell had a short operation on his eye socket. He’s not going to be able to spar for 10 or 11 weeks, so we’re looking for a spring return.”
Brook would have major problems with Miguel Cotto. That’s a bad fight for Brook, because Cotto has much better power on his shots, and he’s got a far better jab. Cotto hits too hard, and I think it would end badly for Brook. He’s not going to beat a fighter as talented as Cotto by landing pot shots, which is what he was doing against Golovkin. Cotto would track Brook down, and outland him like Golovkin was doing.
The blueprint is already there in how to beat Brook. Just stay on top of him, hit him hard, and he’ll run around the ring until his trainer throws in the towel. If I was Brook, I would have his trainer Dominic Ingle let the fight play out next time by not throwing in the towel unless there’s another serious injury. Brook doesn’t need to get a reputation for being bailed out of fights by his trainer. I think it looks much better for a fighter to go out on his shield rather than having a trainer throw in the towel over and over again. That’s why I think it would be better for Brook to take a couple of tune-up fights so that he can be sure that his eye will hold together under the pounding of a hard contest. It’s not smart to come off of a bad eye injury and immediately face left hook artists like Cotto or Canelo. Those guys have superb left hooks, and they’re likely going to be trying to get a stoppage with that weapon by targeting Brook’s surgically repaired right eye. Brook needs to be totally confident that his eye will hold together under the serious pounding of a fight.
I just don’t know if that fight can get made. Brook would need to take the smaller money for the match to have any chance of taking place. I’m not sure if Cotto would be agreeable to fighting in the UK. I think that’s a nonstarter if Hearn pushes to have the fight staged in the UK. Cotto will likely want the fight to take place in New York, where he has a large fan base.