By Edward Chaykovsky
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is very proud of his fighter, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25KOs), who gave it his all on Saturday night, when he suffered the first defeat of his career.
Brook moved up by thirteen pounds to challenge IBF/WBC/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) at the division limit of 160-pounds.
The O2 Arena in London was roaring loud every time Brook landed his punches to snap Golovkin's head back. Eventually Golovkin's power and size was too much, with Brook suffering a broken right eye socket in the second round. His trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel in the fifth when Brook was being worked over.
Brook has always been pressing Hearn for a major fight and the Matchroom promoter delivered the biggest one available when British middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. fell out.
“Fans always want to fighters step up and fight the best and he did that,” Hearn said. “Kell stepped up from welterweight to middleweight. He wanted the big fights and it was a hell of a fight. I think Kell deserves lot of respect.”
When the fight was stopped, Brook was ahead on the scorecards. Hearn says his fighter would have continued for as long as he was physically possible.
“Kell stepped up and fought the best, he was ahead on the scorecards but at the end of the day his eye socket has gone. He would fight all night but – I know the fans want to see the fight go on as long as possible – but you can’t be fighting a guy like Golovkin when you can’t focus on the guy. Kell deserves a huge amount of respect and I believe he is still one of the best fighters in the world. For five or six rounds he has given Golovkin a hell of a fight.”
