By Edward Chaykovsky
This past Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, IBF/IBO/WBC/WBA middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25KOs) took part in what GGG called "a crazy street fight."
In a battle of wills, Brook was eventually stopped in the fifth round. He suffered a broken right eye socket in the second round. As the injury grew worse, his trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel in the fifth round.
Brook, who moved up by thirteen pounds to take the fight, is now expected to drop down to the junior middleweight division.
As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, HBO Sports President Peter Nelson approached Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport to express his interest in Brook.
“Peter Nelson has already come up to me and said: ‘We need to talk about Kell Brook,” said Hearn. “That was part of the plan: to broaden the brand. So actually, it was a very smart move [to move up to 160 for Golovkin].”
Regarding the opponents, Hearn reveals that HBO is very interested in having Brook face Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez next May on Cinco De Mayo weekend. Canelo (47-1-1, 33KOs) is back this Saturday night on HBO Pay-Per-View, and challenges WBO 154-pound champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13KOs), who sparred with Brook in the lead up to this fight.
If they are unable to secure Canelo, there are also other options like Amir Khan and former four division world champion Miguel Cotto.
"There is already interest from HBO in a fight between Canelo Alvarez and Kell next May. That’s a fight Kell would absolutely love and has said so to me himself. 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. We want to go straight into a big one," Hearn told Daily Mail.
