Kell Brook recently lost his second consecutive world title fight. This time to one of boxing's brightest welterweight prospects, Errol Spence Junior. The manner of the loss seems to highlight something most of the boxing public failed to realise as regards Brook's previous loss at Middleweight to Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin.
While many hailed Brook for putting up a masterclass performance in his loss to GGG, the truth is that he should never have taken that fight as he had never fought competitively at even Junior-Middleweight - not to mention Middleweight level.
He had no real preparation for the power of an average championship middleweight, to talk less of that of a dominant, very hard hitting Middleweight champion with over 20 straight stoppages. All the Kangaroo meat he consumed in preparing for that fight could only have meant he had some non-humans rooting against him that fight night!
Career threatening injury
It was a mini suicide mission, and Kell Brook paid for it with a serious career threatening injury, a broken eye socket. This injury was in all likelihood the culmination of significant injury to both sides of the eye region that Brook suffered in fighting Golovkin. This is a very strong explanation for the nature of Brook's subsequent and current loss to Errol Spence Jnr.
Either Brook had not totally recovered from the damage done by GGG, or that loss highlighted a weakness in Brook's physical profile that other smart boxers could exploit (which may never have been exposed if Brook had not exposed himself to Golovkin's immense power even for a middleweight).
Kell Brook fought Golovkin in an effort to become a legend in the order of the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard, former welterweights who would go on to win World Middleweight Titles against respected middleweights.
But there was something Brook forgot.
Jake La Motta
Even before Robinson fought for the World Welterweight Title in 1947, he had fought Jake La Motta, his Arch Nemesis and a natural middleweight, 5 times, winning 4 of the bouts. As a result, when Robinson moved up in weight to challenge Jake for the World Middleweight Title, he was very well prepared and won by convincing stoppage in his sixth fight against an opponent he knew more than any other.
When Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvellous Hagler for the Middleweight Title in 1987, he had actually been preparing for 3 years. Part of that preparation was a Light - Middleweight fight with Leonard which ensured that Hagler was past his best before fighting him, knowing also that he was the taller and younger man. In spite of all this, even the Great Sugar Ray Leonard only managed a split decision victory over one of the greatest middleweights ever.
Kell Brook should have done his homework before challenging GGG. If he had he would have noted the fate of Amir Khan, who attempted a similar feat against Saul Canelo Alvarez, gaining the lead on points only to lose by brutal knockout in the 6th round!
Solid preparation needed
The template is, for even a top Welterweight to beat a top Middleweight, at least 2 years of solid preparation are necessary, part of which could ideally be fights at Junior-Middleweight.
At the end of the fight with Brook, and in unshaken spite of the Brook fans who thought their man had put up a great performance, Golovkin made a damning and solid statement to the effect that Kell Brook WAS NOT a Middleweight. Brook's subsequent decision to go back to fight at Welterweight confirms this verdict. Sadly, the damage he suffered in that fight does not appear to be losing it's effect soon enough.
For a Welterweight to fight a Top Middleweight with 6 months preparation or less is suicidal and should not be sanctioned by Boxing Bodies. That even Floyd Mayweather Junior never attempted it should be noted. Hopefully, Kell Brook's career will recover, but his case should be a lesson for other boxers to learn from.