FORMER IBF world welterweight champion Kell Brook will return to training in the next couple of weeks with a view to fighting before the end of the year after undergoing surgery on a fractured eye socket.
Brook lost his belt to unbeaten American in May when his left eye socket was broken. Back in September of last year he suffered the same injury to his right eye against Gennady Golovkin.
After recently having surgery on his eye, Brook is recovering before returning to Ingle’s famed Sheffield gym ahead of his next outing, which is yet to be planned.
“He’s doing well. He’ll be back in the gym in the next couple of weeks, he’s just enjoying time with his family at the moment. We’re looking for him to be back in the gym at the beginning of July and we’ll whip him into some kind of shape,” Ingle told Boxing News.
Having lost in front of his home fans at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, Brook is understandably crestfallen but he has vowed to return to action and be involved in more big fights.
A potential domestic superfight with Amir Khan is still on the table, and Ingle hopes it can happen next year after Brook is back in shape.
“Obviously he’s disappointed. It’s one of those times where you can think ‘what if?’ but it’s disappointing,” he said.
“He’s got to rebuild and I think we’ll get a date in November or December for his next fight and we’ll see if we can make the Amir Khan fight for the spring. It’s something to look forward to. Now it’s a case of getting him back in the gym and seeing where he’s at. He put himself through it for that last fight.”
Brook was on the receiving end of a lot of unjust criticism after the Spence fight, with some claiming he ‘quit’ when he voluntarily took a knee and was counted out in the 11th round after sustaining the eye injury.
Ingle, who saw what Brook put himself through to get down to 147lbs, dismisses such claims.
He said: “People talk about him quitting but I said to Kell, I said it to a lot of people, before the fight; most fighters don’t quit in the ring, they quit in training camp. They cut corners in camp and they get into the fight and realise they’ve not done the work. Kell went up against this guy, he hadn’t put a foot wrong in camp, he put everything in.
“I know for a fact it wasn’t anything to do with quitting. He put everything into it, he was there to win. Kell, he likes his fans. He’s obviously gutted but he’s a performer, a fighter and he’ll always go out on his shield.”
