Promoter Eddie Hearn still has high hopes for Kell Brook. In fact, far from being at all diluted by Brook’s ultra-brave loss to middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, Hearn says the future is bright, very bright for the Sheffield fighter. The step up to middleweight was an audacious gamble which never paid off, with a win, anyway – but the sizzling action got Brook noticed by HBO in a big way and there are more massive fights out there for the 30-year-old; winnable fights.
Hearn, in writing for The Daily Mail, said how the plan for after Brook’s smashed eye socket has healed, is to “go straight into a big one.” The promoter listed three names that are very much in the cross-hares: Canelo Alvarez, Amir Khan and Miguel Cotto. Either fight would be big, the Khan fight more so in the UK, and what’s more, you would have to be a fool to give Brook anything less than a decent chance at worst of winning either match-up.
Brook showed his mettle against Golovkin, he was not knocked cold and he won some points (on the cards, as well as making a few points with his performance). The loss proved far more than any of Brook’s recent IBF welterweight title retentions, put it that way. Hearn says Brook could be back against Canelo in May.
“There is already interest from HBO in a fight between Canelo Alvarez and Kell next May,” Hearn wrote. “That’s a fight Kell would absolutely love and he has said so to me. Common sense would also suggest that the fight Britain wants to see with Amir Khan should also be possible. Then there’s Miguel Cotto, which would be a huge fight. They are the three main ones we are looking at for his comeback.”
Hearn added how Brook still very much considers himself the IBF 147-pound boss and that, a mega-fight at 154 aside, he may try and get back down there to defend it. But realistically, it does seem as though Brook, who packed on all that muscle and explained time and again how weakened he was from making the welterweight limit, should fight at 154 from now on. Brook certainly carried his speed up with him to middleweight, if not his power (although GGG has never shown anything resembling a poor chin) and at 154 he could be a real force.
Canelo has to get past Liam Smith first (and some people do see the upset happening in Texas!) but that would be another fight to grip British boxing – it could also be Canelo’s third fight in a row against a British boxer. Khan may or may not agree to finally get it on with Brook, but with his being the number-one contender for Danny Garcia’s WBC welterweight belt, don’t count on it. While Cotto, coming towards the end of his great career as he is, might ask for a pretty hefty payday to fight Brook.
The plans for Brook’s future are big indeed; let’s just hope he suffers no lasting ill effects from the GGG TKO loss.