Last May in front of Kell Brook’s passionate hometown fans in Sheffield, Errol Spence Jr beat Brook and with it took the IBF welterweight title from the Sheffield man. After that fight in May Brook took time away from boxing got his eye fixed, suffered and rebounded from his personal demons, found out who his true friends are and returned this time at light middleweight this past Saturday and impressively stopped Sergey Rabchenko in two rounds. While few gave Rabchenko a chance, the bookies had him as long as 10-1, the manner of Brook’s victory was impressive, Brook promised he would rise again, and that certainly now looks the case.
After the fight, the talk turned to who Brook would face next. The obvious question was would he face domestic rival Amir Khan, there is no doubt Brook wants it, and as I have said before I am not quite so sure Khan does. Brook v Khan certainly should be easier to make now Khan is now with Matchroom, but agreeing on a weight I still think could be the stumbling block to making that happen. Khan would want it at 147, Brook’s team would offer a catchweight somewhere between 147 and 154, Khan knows his chances increase by making Brook boil his body back down to 147. I also think Khan would prefer another world title shot at 147, so weight issues aside, I think they both might be on different career paths, at least for now.
But whatever happens with Brook v Khan, Brook has plenty of options going forward, trying to win a 2nd world title, and a possible rematch with Spence Jr, this time at light middleweight or again a catchweight fight.
Even in defeat, I felt Brook showed what an elite fighter he really is, pushing his hyped opponent all the way until the eye injury and the weight cut swung the fight in favour of the American. If Brook could win a world title at light middleweight it would make the rematch far more likely to happen, Brook from comments I have seen today is certainly up for it, and it would definitely be the sort of big fight Brook wants as he winds down his career.
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