Hearn Says Cotto and Top Names Refused Brook, Credits Spence

By Victor Salazar

New York - With so many good welterweights in the world, one would think a star like IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) would be getting big fights left and right. Such is not the case.

Ever since his big victory stateside over Shawn Porter, Brook has fought mandatories in England and suffered injuries in-between. Most thought a deal was in place with WBO champion Jessie Vargas to unify, but that fell through as well. So what gives in the 147 pound division?

Though many 147 pound fighters say they want to fight Brook in England, no big fights have come to fruition. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sports says that no big name welterweights want to fight him - other than unbeaten Olympian Errol Spence Jr.

“Everybody knows how good Kell Brook, none of the US fighters want to fight him minus the exception of Errol Spence, I’ll give him some credit,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com.

"All these U.S. fighters are vocal to the media but not when it comes done to getting a fight done. We tell them there’s 3 million dollars plus American TV, they say ‘oh I’m not coming to England’, why not? So then we say, ‘Ok we’ll come to America, just give us the UK TV and they still say no.”

Hearn says Brook was willing to move up and fight Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds, a fight that was turned down by Cotto’s promoter, Roc Nation Sports.

“Peter Nelson of HBO phoned me up and said we want Kell Brook to fight Miguel Cotto, I phoned up Roc Nation and they said we are not interested in the fight.”

So then the opening came when Chris Eubank Jr and Gennady Golovkin could not come to terms. Hearn offered the fight to Brook and says it was the easiest fight he’s ever made. Brook accepted the same terms to fight Golovkin for the IBO/WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight titles - and according to Hearn makes a more sellable fight.

“Eubank Jr. is a British champion and he’s got a long career ahead of him. This is one of the best world champions in boxing in Kell Brook. The disadvantage here is if this was at 154 lbs., I’d back Kell Brook to beat Golovkin any day of the week. We’re taking it at 160 because we have to and we’re not making any excuses. It’s not a problem. We’re big enough and good enough to make our own decision. Luckily Brook has a big set of testicles to make big fights happen.”