By Barry Holbrook: Promoter Kalle Sauerland says he plans on making an offer to former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook to take on Chris Eubank Jr this summer in the UK. Kalle sees it as a stadium-worthy fight this summer.
Brook (39-3, 27 KOs) would need to move up in weight from 154 to 160 to face former IBO super middleweight champion Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs), as there’s no way that Chris could come down to 154.
Brook lost his last fight to WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford by a fourth-round knockout last December at 147.
You can’t give Brook too much flak for the loss, considering he hadn’t fought at welterweight since his defeat against Errol Spence Jr in 2017.
Eubank Jr will need to win his next fight in May against an opponent still to be determined. Kalle is talking about having Eubank Jr, 31, potentially fight on the undercard of Joseph Parker vs. Dereck Chisora.
Eubank-Brook targeted stadium
“It’s one that will need a crowd, and it’s one that has created one hell of a reaction,” said Kalle Sauerland to iFL TV on a fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Kell Brook.
“People say, ‘You can’t do that. Brook is another weight class.’ I’m looking at it from the outside, but Brook has been killing himself to make weight the last few years.
“So he had a very strong opponent [Terence Crawford] last time, and I feel he would be better at a bigger weight. That’s their call to make at the time.
“We’ll definitely make an offer, and it’ll be pretty quick after the next fight. But at the same time, to make a feasible offer to tempt them [Brook and Eubank Jr] to take the fight, it would have to have the economics on the side, and the economics involves a stadium,” said Sauerland.
Eubank Jr hasn’t fought since 2019, and it’s unclear how much he has left at this point. In his last fight, he beat Matt Korobov by a second-round injury stoppage in December 2019.
That was a contest in which Korobov, 36, suffered a shoulder injury that forced the fight to be halted in the second.
Eubank’s last true fight was in February 2019 against an over-the-hill James DeGale, which he won by a 12 round decision. In 2020, Eubank Jr didn’t fight at all.
Many boxing fans believe that Brook is a shot fighter, but it’s more of a case of him being inactive and fighting super talented fighters in Spence, Crawford, and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Brook has only lost to the best, and he shouldn’t have fought Spence and Crawford at 147. Kell was clearly drained in both of those fights, but he didn’t have much choice.
If Brook wanted the paydays that went along with fighting Spence and Crawford, he had to meet them at 147.
Kalle wants Eubank Jr vs. Brook this summer in the UK
“It’s a big Eubank fight. There will certainly be an offer that will be made [on the Brook fight],” said Sauerland. “I think it’s a fantastic fight. There’s a GGG discussion to be had.
“There are lots of angles out there [for Eubank Jr]. Let’s see what happens with the Canelo vs. Billy Joe fight. There are so many options. I love the Brook fight in the UK this summer.
“Absolutely, bang on, and we’ll be in the position to make an offer for that fight, and we’ll make an offer. And the people at Team Brook to look at that.
“They certainly have a good team around them that has been around the sport for a long time at the very top of it.
“They’re going to have other options on the table for them, and they’ll have to weigh it out,” said Sauerland.
It’ll be excellent if Kalle can get the Brook vs. Eubank Jr fight made because there will be a lot of interest in this one. Ideally, Brook should take a tune-up fight against someone at 160 to get ready for the Eubank Jr fight, but it’s unlikely that he will.
