By Keith Idec
It didn’t take long for potential opponents to start calling out Sadam Ali.
Eddie Hearn issued a challenge to the new WBO super welterweight champion Sunday in which the British promoter let Ali know Kell Brook wants to fight for his 154-pound championship. Hearn’s company promotes England’s Brook, who is expected to return to the ring sometime early in March against a soon-to-be-named opponent.
Hearn indicated that Brook will face a lesser opponent than Ali in his first fight as a full-fledged 154-pounder before trying to secure a shot at Ali’s title. Brook hasn’t fought since suffering another fractured orbital bone during his 11th-round knockout loss to undefeated Errol Spence Jr. on May 27 in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown.
Hearn Tweeted: Congrats on a great win @realworldkidali - @SpecialKBrook back early March then he is coming for the 154 [inserted emoji for crown]. Hearn tagged @GoldenBoyBoxing and @HBOboxing in the Tweet.
Brooklyn’s Ali (26-1, 14 KOs) is represented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Golden Boy and Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing work with HBO, which televised Ali’s upset of Miguel Cotto (41-6, 33 KOs) in the Puerto Rican legend’s farewell fight Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Golden Boy president Eric Gomez contacted Hearn regarding Brook’s availability to challenge Cotto on Saturday night, but Brook was not yet medically clear to return to training for a fight that would’ve taken place that soon.
The 31-year-old Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) had surgery to repair a broken eye socket, this time around his left eye, after losing his IBF welterweight title to Spence (22-0, 19 KOs) six months ago. He previously had surgery to fix a fractured right eye socket following his fifth-round technical knockout loss to IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) in September 2016 in London.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.