By Kenneth Friedman: Kell Brook’s recent interview comments about Eddie Hearn have him furious, and he’s not pleased with some of the stuff he said.
In reaction to former IBF welterweight champion Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) saying he hadn’t heard from his former promoter Hearn since his fight with Mark DeLuca last February, Hearn says Kell choose to negotiate the fight deal with Top Rank to face Terence Crawford without including him.
Hearn feels that Brook turned his back on him and negotiated the deal with Top Rank without him. Eddie isn’t quite sure what the rationale was for Brook not choosing to use him to negotiate the fight with WBO welterweight champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) on November 14th, but he believes it could be money or he wants to go his separate ways.
Brook said if there’s no money in it for Hearn, then he’s not interested. He said there would have been money for Hearn if he had worked with him on the Crawford fight.
Eddie angry that Brook turned his back on him
“I was quite disappointed and angry,” said Hearn to IFL TV about Brook’s recent interview. “I want to stay classy so I won’t say too much about Brook’s career, but I will say 99 percent of what he said was bollox.
“Let’s start with the Crawford fight and Sky situation. He [Brook] was talking to Top Rank, and he had meetings with Top Rank about that fight [against Crawford], and probably other fights as well, which didn’t go down very well with me. I’m an all or nothing kind of guy.
“They come back, couldn’t get the Crawford fight, so they asked me to do is fight. He fought Mark DeLuca, and then after the DeLuca fight, they carried on their conversations with Top Rank. I was never involved in one conversation with Top Rank regarding this fight,” said Hearn.
We don’t know why Brook chose to work a deal with Top Rank without including Hearn on the deal. Is Brook on good terms with Hearn? Does he blame him for his career going down the tubes following his consecutive defeats against Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr?
Many boxing fans think it was a bad decision on Brook’s part to take the fight with middleweight champion Golovkin in 2016. Some of those fans blame Hearn for offering the GGG fight to Brook, and many of them think he hurt his career by letting him take the risky match.
The question is, does Brook blame Hearn for making that move? Is that why he didn’t include him on the deal with Top Rank for the Crawford fight?
Brook had wanted to make the fight with Crawford in 2019, but he couldn’t get the fight. He ended up facing junior middleweight contender DeLuca last February, and he dispatched him in seven rounds.
Hearn wasn’t included in Brook’s negotiations with Crawford
“No consultation, no opinion from me, and no part of the negotiations whatsoever,” Hearn continued about the Brook vs. Crawford fight deal. “They chose to do this all their self.
“Now was that because they didn’t want to pay me or because they wanted to go their separate way? Once you turn your back on me, don’t ever turn around and start walking back towards me,” said Hearn.
A lot of people believe that Brook is cashing out before retirement and trying to cut the fat out from his expensive. He’s no longer with long-term trainer Dominic Ingle. Was that a cost-cutting move for Brook?
If Brook is looking to make the most money he can from the Crawford fight before riding out into the sunset, it makes sense why he’s making the moves he’s been doing in parting ways with Ingle and leaving Hearn out of the Crawford deal.
The way that Brook spoke during an interview last week with IFLTV, he gave the impression that it was Hearn that had turned his back on him by not contacting him since his win over DeLuca las February.
Hearn: Brook could have achieved a lot more
“You’re either with me or your not. If you’re with me, I’ll give you everything, as I’ve done for that young man [Brook] for eight years,” said Hearn. “They’ve gone their own way. I’ve accepted that.
“He’s gone. You made the decision to turn your back on me. Once you do that, you’re gone.
“He [Brook] could have achieved so much more in the game if he were more discipline,” Hearn said of Brook. “I was really, really, really disappointed by that interview, and it wasn’t even Kell’s words, to be honest with you,” said Hearn.
There’s no question that Brook could have achieved a lot more with his boxing career than he did if he was more disciplined, stayed in shape year-round, and stayed active from 2018 on.
It’s no secret that Brook has slowed his own career by not often fighting since his losses to Spence and GGG. Since 2017, Brook has fought just three times. Is that Hearn’s fault that Kell has been so inactive?
Not according to Hearn. He says he went to his house many times to talk to him about getting him active again. Why didn’t Brook fight more after his loss to Spence?
All that time wasted by Brook with him not fighting and always talking about wanting to face the elusive Amir Khan. It was clear over a decade ago that Khan wasn’t interested in ever fighting Brook, and it was sad to hear him not accepting that reality.
Always talking about Khan, and it was clear that didn’t register with Brook that there was no interest and there never would be.
If Brook had dedicated himself to his training, he could have returned to the 147-pound division in the last three years and potentially gotten big payday fights against Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Manny Pacquiao, Crawford, Spence, and Danny Garcia.
Instead of staying at 147, Brook moved up to 154 and fought three little known fringe contenders, and was slowly forgotten by fans. Those fights were so low-level that Brook arguably lost his popularity.
The same thing would have happened to any high-level welterweight if they chose to fight the same level of opposition that Brook has.