By Tim Royner: Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) sees it as possible for Kell Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) to win a world title at junior middleweight, but he still isn’t sure how much his loss to him last year will impact his future success.
Spence Jr. broke down and stopped former IBF welterweight champion Brook in the 11th round last year on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Brook, 31, is fighting for the first time since that loss on March 3 against junior middleweight contender Sergey Rabchenko (29-2, 22 KOs) at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England.
It’s a fight that has risk to it for Brook, who has suffered broken eye sockets in his last 2 fights. What’s disconcerting about the injuries is they occurred to both of Brook’s eyes. He suffered a broken socket to one eye in 5th round stoppage loss to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin on September 10, 2016. 8 months later, Brook suffered an identical broken eye socket injury in his 11th round knockout loss to Spence Jr. on May 27.
“I don’t see why Kell can’t win a world title at that weight,” Spence Jr. said to skysports.com. “No one will know what my fight has done to him until we see him fighting again, but he is a good fighter and we had expected him to move [up a weight] for a while.”
Brook is facing a tough guy with plenty of power in 31-year-old Rabchenko. If there’s a weakness with one or both of Brook’s eyes, Rabchenko will very likely bring that out with his big power shots. He hits very hard, and it’s possible that he could injure one of Brook’s eyes if he connects cleanly with his power shots.
Rabchenko can be beaten, as we’ve seen in his recent 9th round knockout loss to junior middleweight contender Tony Harrison and in his 12 round split decision defeat at the hands of Anthony Mundine in 2014. Brook end up regretting making the decision to face a hard puncher in his first fight back from eye his second eye surgery. To be certain, there are harder punchers in the 154 lb. division than Rabchenko, but not many. If Brook suffers a third eye injury in the Rabchenko fight, he only has himself to blame for choosing to fight him.
If Brook can beat Rabchenko, he has a chance of fighting for the WBO junior middleweight title in his next fight against either Sadam Ali or Liam Smith. Ali vs. Smith is a fight that could take place in the first half of 2018. The winner of that fight would be a likely opponent for Brook if he is able to get past Rabchenko. There’s also the chance that Brook could face Ali for the WBO title with the winner facing Liam Smith. It’s more likely that the Brook-Rabchenko winner will face the winner of the Ali vs. Smith fight for the WBO junior middleweight title in 2018.
“He could easily have vacated the belt and moved up but he wanted to fight me and not give it up, so I applaud Kell Brook for being a real fighter,” said Spence.
Spence defends his IBF welterweight title for the first time against #5 IBF contender Lamont Peterson (35-3-1, 17 KOs) on January 20 on Showtime Championship Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This is a voluntary defense for the 28-year-old Spence.
Spence says he’ll be moving up to the 154lb. division in the near future, and he “definitely” would be interested in facing Brook in a rematch if he’s still around by the time he makes the move to junior middleweight. We just don’t know if Brook will be around for too much longer. If he sustains another eye injury in his fight with Rabchenko, that would be his third consecutive fight in which he’s suffered an eye problem.
You would have to think that Brook would choose to retire from boxing at that point. It would be unwise for Brook to continue on and risk further eye injuries by fighting. The second eye injury Brook suffered was a freak thing. It’s unclear whether the injury was tied to the original eye problem from the Golovkin fight for if it’s an inherent weakness with the bones of Brook’s eye socket. If it’s a weakness, then it will potentially happen again.
The fact that it’s happening now makes you wonder whether Brook is suffering some kind of bone loss. It would be disappointing for Brook to retire without ever having been involved in a mega-fight during his career against a big name. Brook has been trying to get Amir Khan to agree to fight him for many years without success. Khan’s career is now on the verge of going belly up, and yet still is showing no interest in facing Brook. If Khan loses one or two more fights, it won’t be worth it for Brook to fight him.
Brook should try and box Rabchenko rather than standing and trading with him. He’s got to know that he’s not facing a light puncher from the 147 lb. division. Rabchenko can punch, and he’ll surely be looking to KO Brook with every shot he throws.