KELL BROOK will make the first defence of his IBF welterweight title on March 28 at the Motorpoint Sheffield Arena. The British star won the title, on American soil, when he defeated Shawn Porter in August last year. The victory ensured his promoters Matchroom delivered on their promise to guide him to a world title after the fighter joined Eddie Hearn‘s stable in 2011.
“The perfect move,” Brook evaluated to Boxing News about that switch. “They’re [Matchroom] fair but they’re firm, you’ve got to be able to fight to be with them. These other promoters can sometimes get home advantage but if you can’t fight, you’re gonna get beat anyway and you get no money. With Matchroom, they give you the maximum money, that’s why I went over there. Wherever it was, I feel comfortable I could have won. With Eddie, the way he thinks and the way he works, the people around him, he gets them to work, they’re definitely the best promoters in boxing for me.”
Some doubted that Brook – after spending a lot of time seeing chances for world glory slip through his fingers due to injury – was biting off more than he could chew by heading to the States to challenge the previously unbeaten Porter, but the Sheffield fighter knew beforehand he had made the right decision.
“I felt in my heart, I knew that night were my night,” Brook said about his world title triumph. “After the final bell had rung, I felt that I had won the fight and when they announced it and in the back of my mind I did feel there was a chance I might get robbed, but something within told me that they were gonna announce me name, which they did.”
FOR THE FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BROOK – where he discusses his return from a near-fatal stabbing and his plans to fight the likes of Amir Khan in 2015 – DOWNLOAD BOXING NEWS ON TUESDAY.
