By Jamie Hooper – When I first read about Kell Brook, I was quite dismissive. Mainly because I have never been that impressed with the fighters coming from the Ingles gym since Naseem Hamed. When the Ingles churn out another fighter, I expect to see an over confident fighter, switching stance too often and using upper body movement for defense with a low guard. Basically Naz clones. This style was build around Hamed’s specific talents and is not likely to work for other fighters..
I seen an interview of Kell Brook, talking about how impressed he was watching Nazeem Hamed train, and the influence he had on him. I just thought to myself ‘not another one’. Having seen Kell’s last three fights i was pleasantly surprised. You can still tell that he comes from the Ingle stable but he is defiantly not a Naz clone. He maintains a reasonably high guard and his movement is economical and fluid. He seams to have a good punch radar but isn’t using this as his sole defense like a lot of Ingles fighters.
One of the best or most noticeable assets he has is his jab. He snakes it out very effectively and his opponents so far have had a hard time nullifying it. He also has a solid right cross, which scored him his last few knockouts. He carries a fair bit of power in it to.
On the negative side he has got the over confidence that a lot of Ingle fighters have. I don’t like this because that confidence should come when the fighter reaches the height of their ability. He should be trying to push all his skills to world class level, this requires a degree of humility because you have to be aware of the fact that your not the finished article yet. I felt rightly or wrongly that Nazeem Hamed relied heavily on his natural instinctive defensive skills, and could have performed better against fighters of Barrera’s caliber, if he had learned more technical defensive skills. If Naz wasn’t so supremely confident in his abilities, he may have spent more time layering on more skills.
Kell Brook is clearly a very good prospect for UK boxing. He recently won ‘boxing writers young boxer award. Which I thought should have gone to Nathan Cleverly. Kell Brook hasnt really had much in the way of competition yet in his 20-0 career. I look forward to his much anticipated domestic fight with Michael Jennings. This will be a decent test for Kell and its the sort of fight he needs to further ignite the current spark off interest shown in him.
In closing i hope that Kell realizes that his current skill set although impressive at domestic level, can be enhanced and his assets improved further. I hope he tries to become a complete fighter which I don’t think Ingle fighters tend to become. I look forward to seeing him being tested further, in the coming year.