Hearn: Brook Wants To Beat The Best, He'll Beat Porter

By Edward Chaykovsky

Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is confident IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15KOs) will go forward with his mandatory defense against Kell Brook (32-0, 22KOs).

There have been some stumbles, with an August 9th date falling through and a new date is now being worked on. Last year, Brook missed was scheduled to face then champion Devon Alexander on three separate dates. All three fell through due to injuries. Then Porter got a shot at Alexander and captured his title with an upset decision last December.

Kell Brook has come in for a lot of criticism and stick which is totally unjustified. He had three fights with Devon Alexander, two of which he had to pull out of through injury and one that was cancelled because of an injury to Alexander," Hearn said in his Daily Mail column.

"He suffered a lot of heartache and expense missing out on that opportunity. We're a year behind but he's got his shot and he wants to prove a point. He wants to beat the best and he will beat Shawn Porter.

"They know what kind of fight this is, a real fight against a top welterweight and maybe the risk-reward doesn't work out. But they're in too deep and the only way out is to vacate and I can't see [Porter] doing that."