Kell Brook, an undefeated star in Great Britain who barely registers as a blip on the radar in the United States has an opportunity on August 9 (tentatively) to make a name for himself stateside. He's agreed to face "Showtime" Shawn Porter at Brooklyn's Barclays Center for Porter's IBF welterweight title, although he tried to have the fight on his own turf.
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Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn said he and his fighter are happy with the deal they eventually agreed upon, but that an effort was made to have the fight in England. "'I don't see any issues coming up. We tried everything we could to get Porter to the UK but there was zero interest from their team. But we are very happy with the deal and Kell is in fantastic shape," Hearn told the Daily Mail. "He is a great fighter and has waited a long time for a title fight."
Brook's record stands at 32-0-0 with 22 knockouts; while the resume looks impressive there are very few name fighters on his list of conquered foes. For quite some time he tried to tangle with Devon Alexander for the IBF belt, but poorly timed injuries to both men kept squandering opportunities. Instead, Alexander ended up fighting Porter after Amir Khan pulled out of a fight, and Alexander was soundly beaten. Now, Brook gets Porter instead of Alexander.
Porter is 24-0-1 with 15 knockouts, but he owns victories over Alexander, Paulie Malignaggi, and Julio Diaz. His father and trainer Kenny Porter sees lots of advantages for his son against the British mandatory challenger.
"When it comes to speed, I see an advantage there for Shawn. He's faster than this guy. When it comes to quickness, Shawn is quicker than this guy," Kenny Porter said.
"It's coming down to skill level and it's coming down to the type of competition they've been in with and I feel that those aspects are advantages for Shawn as well. So the bigger they are, the harder they fall and we're expecting this guy to take a lot of punishment on that night and we're going to see how much punishment he can take."
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