By Jeff Aronow: Kell Brook won’t be training with his longtime coach Dominic Ingle for his upcoming November 14th fight in the U.S against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Ingle says that Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) wanted to train in a different location rather than where he normally does in Sheffield, England, and he couldn’t do. He’s got other fighters to train, and he can’t leave them.
Dominic says he doesn’t know who former IBF welterweight champion Brook will be training with if anyone for the Crawford match. Brook also won’t be promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, according to Ingle.
If Brook isn’t going to be promoted by Hearn or trained by Ingle, it suggests that he may be looking to cash out for the fight. He won’t be paying Hearn or Ingle anything, and he’ll keep the money for himself unless he has other people in mind.
The way that Brook’s carer has once since 2016, it’s completely erratic, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he elects to cash out. He hasn’t had a serious fight in three years since his loss to Errol Spence Jr in 2017, and he was lucky to get the Crawford.
Dominic wasn’t going to be told what to do
“I’m the trainer. I’m not going to have anyone tell me how they want they want their camp running,” said Ingle to IFL TV about him parting ways with Brook.
“Some fighters might do that, but it’s never been that way with me. I stipulate how the camp is and what we’re going to do. If he’s not happy with that, then he can do it somewhere else.
“I don’t have people tell me how they can train because I’m a trainer, so I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to have someone come in and dictate to me, not that Kell did. Realistically, Kell doesn’t need to be anywhere else but Sheffield.
“Why would you take the risk? During these times, why would you take the risk to go abroad? He’s in a big fight with Crawford. Whether it’s an exercise in saving money or whatever it is, that’s down to him.
“I have people say, ‘You’re going to come on board for the last six weeks.’ No, I’m not going to do that, and you wouldn’t ask me to do that. I’ve trained people for 12 weeks.
“I need to know from the beginning of the camps to the end what they’re capable of. Not going in half-blind. I can’t wave a magic wand for people to make them win a fight. It’s what you do in camp,” said Ingle.
Brook put Ingle in a position where he had no option but to turn him down to train him for this fight. Ingle is a good trainer, but he’s not a miracle worker. As we saw in Brook’s losses to Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr, Ingle couldn’t do anything to prevent him from losing.
Ingle gives Kell a chance against Terence
“So people make these decisions,” Ingle continued. “I think Kell Brook could beat Terence Crawford, but he’d have to have the best camp of his life and make the weight the best he could.
“He’d have to have the team behind him. He seems to be doing that himself, which isn’t a good place to be going into America. You need somebody to be around you that has the experience, no matter how much the fighter knows.
“The fighter doesn’t want to be concentrating on anything else other than fighting. I don’t know who is training him. We haven’t fallen out. We’re never going to fall out.
“He does his own thing. Like I say, he’s 34, he has three kids, he’s made his money. We’ve had a good run,” said Dominic.
Brook does have a chance of winning against Crawford, and he might be able to do it by himself. Kell’s motivation is going to be up in the stratosphere against Crawford, and he’s going to be giving it his best effort.
Crawford hasn’t run into a fighter with Brook’s pedigree in the welterweight division, and he may not be ready for that.
We’ve seen Crawford beat top lightweights and light-welterweights, but he hasn’t fought the best in any of the divisions he’s completed in, especially at 147.
If Brook turns it into a dog fight on November 14th, he’s got a chance of beating Crawford. But he’s not going to out-box Terence, and he’d be making a mistake if he tried.
It would be interesting to know what Ingle’s game plan would have been for Brook against the Top Rank promoted Crawford. If Ingle wanted Brook to box Crawford, he would surely lose trying that approach.
Hearn won’t be promoting Brook for Crawford
“Eddie has promoted him all this time,” said Ingle about Eddie Hearn having promoted Brook. “He’s not doing this fight with Eddie. He’s not doing this fight with his promoter, and he’s not doing this fight with his trainer.
“That’s fair enough. We accept. That’s not an issue. He can do and do that. Eddie will still be promoting other fighters, and I’ll still be training other fighters. We’ve all got jobs to do.
“You make your choices in what’s good for you. I can’t take the risk. What’s going on with this day and age with what’s going on with COVID. I can’t get caught up in all that.
“I’ve to keep away from it. For me, it wouldn’t be a wise choice. He’s got to travel to America, fair enough. I don’t want to get caught in quarantine somewhere. That’s how it is,” said Ingle.
It’s not as big of a deal that Hearn won’t promote Brook for this fight with Crawford because it’s not as if he will have a bearing on the outcome. If anything, Hearn might give Brook a pep talk before the fight, but that’s about it.
Brook obviously knows whether he plans on retiring after the fight with Crawford. You got to believe that if Kell puts in a great performance, he’ll continue his career even if he loses to Crawford. Of course, if Brook wins, then it’s for certain he’ll continue because he can make a lot of money in the rematch.
This is a voluntary defense for Crawford, so a rematch clause has probably been inserted into the contract by Top Rank.