By Charles Brun: Kell Brook will be fighting in November or December, says promoter Eddie Hearn. The former IBF welterweight champion Brook (38-2, 26 KOs) hasn’t retired, as many boxing fans believe to be the case. He’s back in training, and looking to get back into the thick of things.
Hearn isn’t saying who the opponent will be for Brook, but one can’t expect much. He’ll have been out of the ring for 12 months by the time he fights in December. Amir Khan recently said that he didn’t want to fight Brook, because he’s slurring when he speaks.
Brook fighting for the first time since Zerafa bout
Brook, 33, hasn’t seen action since his win over junior middleweight Michael Zerafa last December in Sheffield. That fight was supposed to be an easy one for Brook, but he did not look sharp in winning a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 118-110, 119-109 and 117-111. Brook’s face looked like a mess afterwards, and it was obvious that he’d had a tough time against the 26-year-old. Hearn blamed Brook’s poor performance on him not being excited about the fight.
Kell Brook should be ready by November or December for next fight
“I spoke to Dominic Ingle yesterday. I spoke to Kell’s dad yesterday,” said Hearn about Kell Brook. “He’s in training. I think he’ll be ready for November or December. We’ll see what happens,” said Hearn.
Fans can scratch off Amir Khan’s name as a potential opponent for Brook to fight, because he’s not interested in facing him. For some reason, Khan views himself as being in a better position career-wise than Brook. The reality is, they’re both in the same boat with little options for big money fights other than facing each other. Khan has been trying to hustle a fight with Manny Pacquiao, but thus far he’s not had any luck at that front.
Brook needs a good tune-up level opponent to get the rust out, and then he can go after some tougher opposition. With all the downtime that Brook has had in the last three years, he would do well to take three or four quick tune-ups. It would be a bad idea for Brook to take on a top fighter at 147 or 154 at this point. He needs to follow the Tyson Fury approach to scheduling opponents. In other words, find guys with an inflated ranking, and unbeaten record to fight. It’s worked well for Fury.
Brook’s career isn’t what once was due to injury related stoppage losses to Errol Spence and Gennady Golovkin. In those defeats, Brook suffered eye injuries that caused him to bow out. He probably would have lost the Golovkin fight even if he didn’t get injured, but we can’t know for sure. Brook was doing well against GGG until he suffered an eye injury. Kell fought Golovkin and Spence in consecutive fights. In hindsight, it was a crazy idea for Brook to fight those guys back to back.