Despite the fact that he has packed on the pounds, and the muscle, to fight effectively as a middleweight, IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook says he is very much interested in dropping back down in weight to defend his crown after his massive September 10 fight with 160-pound king Gennady Golovkin is done.
A good number of experts have opined how they feel Brook’s audacious move up to get it on with GGG equals him saying adios to the welterweight division, but Brook isn’t thinking that way.
“I think I will defend my title again but it all depends on what is the biggest fight out there for me,” Brook said to ESPN.com. “I’m not going back to just fight anyone, I want to fight people the fans are excited by. I want to be in huge fights. Errol Spence would be a big fight and he’s tipped to do great things. There would be big interest in me fighting him in the US and he’s my mandatory so that’s a fight that could happen.”
Spence, who looked sensational in blasting out the previously unstopped Leonard Bundu this past Sunday, certainly wants it. The unbeaten southpaw called Brook out, telling him he would gladly come to the UK to fight him after the Golovkin-Brook fight is over and done with. And Brook is right when he says this would be a massive fight – nearly up there with GGG-Brook. In fact, if Brook had not taken the biggest risk of his career with the challenge of Golovkin, he would likely be facing Spence next and the fans would have been more than happy.
A clash of unbeaten welterweights, each possession their own blend of skills and talent: Brook Vs. Spence would have been a welcome addition to the big welterweight fights. Maybe it will still happen. So much will depend on how well Brook does against GGG next month. Should Brook actually pull it off and win, would he choose to stay at 160 and look to defend his collection of middleweight titles? If Brook loses on September 10 but makes it a competitive fight and isn’t beaten up badly, the Sheffield man’s rep will likely go up and a move back down to welterweight would see the still-marketable Brook get the Spence showdown and another fine payday.
Brook may or may not find it comfortable losing the weight/muscle he has packed on for the Golovkin fight, but it must be remembered how some great fighters were never quite the same after moving up and then back down again. In an ideal world, Brook should have fought Spence and then, if he had beaten him, moved up to fight Triple-G after that. If Brook was entering the Golovkin fight off the back of a win over Spence, who knows, fans might be giving him a better chance of winning the big one.
