Kell Brook says he should retire if he doesn’t get big summer fight

By Boxing News - 03/28/2016 - Comments

brook455By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) says he should retire if he can’t get a big fight in the summer against one of the big names in the sport. Brook beat his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Kevin Bizier (25-3, 17 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout last Saturday night at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.

Brook, 29, now has two voluntary defenses available to him for the remainder of 2016, and he wants to get a big name. It’s extremely important that Brook gets a big name within his next two fights, because when his next mandatory defense comes around, he’s likely going to need to face unbeaten talent Errol Spence Jr. (19-0, 16 KOs), and he’s someone will almost surely KO Brook and end his short reign as the IBF title.

However, there’s a good chance that Brook will vacate his IBF tile when his next mandatory defense comes due. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already hinting that Brook could move up to 154 in the very near future.

I read that to mean that when the Spence fight comes due, Brook will give up his IBF title straightaway and scat to the safety of the 154lb division, where he’ll look to go after WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith. Many boxing fans see Liam Smith as the weak link among the 154lb champions. As such, it makes sense for Brook to target him rather than one of the talented junior middleweight champions like Erislandy Lara or Jermall Charlo.

“If I cannot get in with a big name in the summer, I should hang the gloves up because I’m in the sport to unify titles and fight the best,” said Brook via the dailystar.co.uk.

Well, instead of hanging up the gloves, Brook should look to put some heat under the backside of his promoter Eddie Hearn, because he’s the one that should have been matching him tough from day one when he took over as his promoter five years ago.

It was clear that Brook hadn’t been put in with any dangerous opponents by his previous opponent, so it was pretty important that Hearn change all that by building Brook’s brand name on the world stage by matching him against the top names when he took over as his promoter.

It would have likely required for Hearn to come up with a lot of cash to get one of those big names, but it would have been worth it in the long run. Brook ould have been a huge name by now if he had been able to beat the top dogs in the welterweight division years ago.

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In looking at Brook’s poor effort against Shawn Porter in their fight in 2014, I could see how Brook’s promoters did the right thing by matching him soft rather than putting him in with guys that would likely have exposed him years ago like Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero, Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz.

Brook wants to fight Tim Bradley, Manny Pacquiao, and Jessie Vargas. However, none of those fighters have been mentioning Brook’s name, which would suggest that they don’t see him as a big enough name for them to want to bother fighting him. The problem that Brook has in going after the big names is that he doesn’t have the name recognition in the States for it to be worthwhile for the big names to fight him. Heck, the only thing that Brook has going for him is his IBF 147lb title, and even that doesn’t hold much weight nowadays.

There are too many titles due to the four sanctioning bodies having watered down each division with their multiple titles. The only way to be seen as a real champion in this day and age is to do what middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is doing in unifying all the titles in his division. If you can accomplish that, which is clearly almost impossible to do, then you’re seen as a real champion in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. If you can’t prove that you’re the best by unifying all or move of the titles, then you’re little more than just a belt holder.

“Those big names excite me and I think they excite the fans,” Brook said. “I don’t do boring fights and I’m more than willing to go to America and knock the best out or lay them out at Bramall Lane. People want to see me in these big fights and they are the fights I want.”



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