Former IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook is hopeful of landing a big fight with pound-for-pound star and current WBO welterweight boss Terence Crawford – in the UK. Speaking with Sky Sports, Brook said Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum spoke to him out in Las Vegas a while back, telling him he likes the idea of Crawford defending his belt against him; possibly in the UK.
“I saw Bob out in America, in the MGM Grand. I basically went over and said: ‘You’re running out of opponents for Crawford and I’m the guy to beat him. I’m here,’” Brook said. “I saw Terence Crawford, he said he’s ready for it, so everybody is on the same page. We just need to make the numbers count for me. The weight won’t be a problem. Obviously, I’m going to have to get the steppers out, chase the kids around the house and get the weight off. I’ve got enough time. If we can agree on what we need to do, we can get into gear and we can make welterweight for the world title.”
Brook has long since battled the scales to make 147, but that issue aside, has Brook got enough left to be able to beat Crawford? The 33-year-old looked pretty good in his ring return, when he stopped Mark DeLuca in February, but of course, Crawford is a whole different story, in a totally different league. Brook said it’s more likely he will have to go to America if the fight is in fact made but that Arum told him he likes the idea of the fight taking place in Britain.
Crawford, 36-0(27) fought in the UK when he beat Ricky Burns to win the WBO lightweight belt in 2014, and maybe he will indeed come to these shores again. But as Brook found out to his cost when losing his IBF strap to Errol Spence, home advantage doesn’t always help. Bottom line question: did those tough and damaging losses to Spence and Gennady Golovkin take too much out of Brook, 39-2(27) for him to be able to give Crawford a real fight?
The odds say they did.
