By Keith Idec
The last thing Kell Brook will worry about when he encounters Errol Spence Jr. is his surgically repaired right eye socket.
England’s Brook had surgery to repair his fractured right orbital bone following his fifth-round technical knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin six months ago. The IBF welterweight champion was holding his own against the bigger, stronger Golovkin, even as the damage around his eye worsened.
The injury he suffered during the second round eventually led his concerned trainer, Dominic Ingle, to throw in the towel during the fifth round of their September 10 fight at O2 Arena in London.
Brook took some additional time off following his surgery, but the British star is confident that the injury is behind him.
“I don’t feel it at all,” Brook told England’s iFL TV on Wednesday following a press conference to officially announce the Spence fight. “I don’t think about it. I’m not gonna be going into this fight and be thinking, ‘Oh, if I get caught.’ You know, I’m going in there like it’s never happened.”
The 30-year-old Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his IBF welterweight title against the dangerous Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), a powerful southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, on May 27 in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown. Their scheduled 12-round fight is expected to draw a crowd in excess of 30,000 to Bramall Lane, an outdoor soccer stadium where Sheffield United FC plays its home games.
Now that enough time has passed since Brook boxed Golovkin, Brook has gotten used to having a titanium plate in the right side of his face.
“Good,” Brook said of how his face feels. “Very good. Metal. Titanium. Strong. You know, me surgeon said it’s probably stronger than it was before.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
