Flash back to mid-April 2013, when Kell Brook was cruelly forced to withdraw from his IBF World Welterweight title clash with then ruler Devon Alexander in Atlantic City with a stress fracture to the foot, you couldn’t help but think that sadly that might have been it for the unbeaten Sheffield stylist. At that stage 29-0, Brook was forced to watch on from home as Golden Boy looked elsewhere, with no room for further postponements, with the fight being rescheduled twice already due to injuries on both sides. The game but ultimately outclassed Lee Purdy stepped in to fill the void, while Brook found himself seemingly at the back of the queue in what is widely understood as boxing’s hottest division.
Only Brook and those close to him will know just how dark it got over those next couple of months, as everything he had worked so hard to achieve began to crumble around him. Not long after in a candid interview with former stable mate Johnny Nelson, Brook confided that at one stage he consider his future in the game. Thankfully, this never materialised, due to a mixture of family, friend and promotional support, but most of all due to a personal fortitude that would serve him so well in the future.
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