By Keith Idec
As his first training camp since surgery winds down, Kell Brook is completely confident in his repaired right eye socket.
Brook is beyond sure it won’t be an issue now that has sparred many rounds in preparation for his IBF welterweight title defense May 27 against Errol Spence Jr. in Sheffield, England. The 31-year-old Brook had surgery to repair his fractured right orbital bone two weeks after his fifth-round technical knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin eight months ago in London.
The injury caused Brook’s trainer, Dominic Ingle, to stop the Golovkin-Brook bout September 10 at O2 Arena.
Sheffield’s Brook took several months off following surgery and received a 60-day medical extension from the IBF while his injury healed. Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) ultimately decided to move back down from middleweight to welterweight to make a mandatory defense of his 147-pound championship against Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), a dangerous southpaw from DeSoto, Texas.
His surgeon, Mohammed Ali, assured Brook that the titanium plate inserted into the right side of his face would make his orbital bone stronger than ever. Brook acknowledged as part of a conference call Tuesday, though, that it was bit of a relief to take that first hard shot in that spot when he began sparring for the Spence fight.
“Obviously it’s always nice to – it’s not nice, actually – getting punched in it the first time and feeling it in the [repaired] spot,” Brook said. “It’s always good to take that first shot. But since then, you know, I’ve had great sparring. I’ve been whacked in it plenty of times and it feels brand new. So there’s no doubt there in the eye.”
Though reassuring once it happened, Brook wasn’t worried about the repaired bone withstanding hard punches.
“To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about it or what would happen when I got hit on it,” Brook said. “I just thought the time is now to spar and that’s when I sparred like I normally do. I didn’t ever think, ‘Oh, what’s it gonna be like? What’s it gonna feel like?’ I knew it was gonna be fine. It was just nice to actually get hit on it and just feel it out.”
Brook-Spence will air on Showtime a week from Saturday in the United States (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT). Their intriguing welterweight showdown will be televised via Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom (6 p.m. BST; £16.95 in HD).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.