New op adds to misery for beaten Brook
Kell Brook’s heartache in losing his IBF welterweight title in Sheffield has been compounded by the news he is facing another operation to repair a broken eye socket.
Brook battled valiantly against Errol Spence Jr at Bramall Lane on Saturday night and more than matched his American foe for the large majority of the bout, but significant swelling around his left eye, sustained in the seventh round, took a severe toll.
He was knocked down in the 10th before taking a knee under no undue pressure in the following round, with ref Howard Foster calling a halt.
The 31-year-old revealed yesterday that he had sustained an identical injury to the one inflicted by middleweight king Gennady Golovkin eight months ago – albeit to the opposite eye broken by the Kazakh.
Brook had a metal plate inserted into his face following the Golovkin defeat and will go under the surgeon’s knife once more, while it seems unlikely he will box again this year.
“The eye is broken again, I need surgery again and I am devastated. It kept going to double vision and that’s why I went down on one knee,” Brook said.
Brook also admitted he had the words of his surgeon ringing in his ears following his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Golovkin in his last bout.
“I remember the surgeon telling me if I’d have gone a round or so extra (against Golovkin) I could have gone blind and I had that in my mind,” he added.
Promoter Eddie Hearn admitted: “It’s a big blow to his career. There was a lot of pain going through the first one and now he’s got to go through another. It was caused by Errol Spence who is a great fighter and the better man won.”
It was a second successive defeat for Brook (36-2, 25KOs), who was down on all three of the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage.