Kell Brook is not about to go quietly into retirement. Tonight, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the Yorkshireman bids to become a world champion again as he challenges Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight title.
It is a massive ask. It is 3½ years since he lost his IBF title to Errol Spence, more than six years since the biggest win of his career against Shawn Porter. Brook believes the good days are not over.
Crawford is unbeaten, a three-weight world champion and regarded as among the top two of three boxers in the sport. Brook, on the other hand, has not even made the welterweight limit since losing the IBF’s title to Spence. But Brook remains hungry, he says he is confident and that means dangerous.
“I’m really up for this,” Brook said. “This is all I’ve done since I was a young kid. I’m excited to become champion of the world again and prove the doubters wrong.
“He is the favourite, but we’ve seen upsets happen recently. Seeing Lopez beat Loma has given me that extra edge. Crawford is a lightweight coming up to welterweight, he has never fought anything like me, someone determined who can punch.
“I know I can hurt this guy. He’s been hurt before and I have the power to get the win I need.”
Despite having been a world champion, Brook’s career has not really hit the heights it was once hoped it would. After winning the world title by beating Porter in California, he had to make do with routine defences while he fruitlessly chased a huge-money fight with Amir Khan.
In a bid for a super-fight, he jumped two weight divisions to challenge Gennady Golovkin for the world middleweight title. He was stopped but worse than that, he was hurt, suffering a fractured orbital bone.
When the time came to defend his belt against Spence, he struggled to lose weight and he suffered another fractured orbital bone, before taking the full count on one knee.
“You keep learning, don’t you?” he said. “For the Spence fight, I left things too late. I went up to middleweight then killed myself getting back down to welterweight. I was travelling back and forth to Sheffield, driving to the gym and back, people asking you to do things. I needed to be away from it all, away from the family and my girls, in a warm climate in Fuerteventura and knuckle down to some hard training.
“I dominated for six or seven rounds Then the weight got to me and my eye went. I had the guy who did the surgery looking through the ropes nodding, saying ‘don’t fight any more’. One more big shot and I could have been blinded.
“When I got in with Porter, I remember thinking in the corner before the bell went ‘am I really at this level?’ But now, going through what I have gone through, and having been in the fights I have, I know I belong at this elite level. I know how I feel, I know the sacrificing I have done in the last four months for this fight. I am more than ready.”
Brook was in the crowd when Crawford stopped Khan in New York in April last year. He has been chasing Crawford since.
The fight talks started for real when he saw Bob Arum at the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight in February. “I saw Bob walking in the MGM for the Wilder-Fury fight and basically said ‘if you need a dance partner, look no further’,” he said.
Doing the deal direct led to a fall out with Eddie Hearn, but Brook said he has not let that worry him.
“We’ve not fallen out, but I am just focusing on Crawford,” he said. “I’ve been slandered all day long on Instagram and Twitter by people for years. That sort of stuff goes right over my head. I can’t waste energy on that.
“If you think about it, after this there are not many options left for me. But I am just thinking about it as a fight with Terence Crawford. Win, lose or draw, though, I’m going to put everything in, And if he beats me, he is going to be one hell of a fighter. This will be a magical fight for me. It’s my time for being on top again.”
He says weight will not be an issue and because the WBO has no rule limiting the amount of weight he can put on after the weigh-in, he could be 20 pounds over the 10st 7lb limit by the time the boxers enter the ring in the early hours of the morning.
“I’m a dangerous man coming into this,” Brook said. “I’m not coming into this to make up the numbers, or to do better than Khan or to go 12 rounds. I’m going in to beat the guy, that’s what I was born to do. I’m a winner, I am going in to win at all costs.
“I know what he is. I know he is a very sharp fighter. He’s got good distance, he’s got good power, he can switch-hit. But at Brendan Ingle’s school of boxing, where I learnt my trade, I’ve seen every style.
“I’ve also got good footwork, good distance and good timing. I think it will be a chess match for a while, until I get these chocolate brownies landing. It’s going to be everything – tactical, a dogfight, there’s going to be drama. “
Crawford v Brook is live in the UK on Premier Sport
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
