Kell Brook hasn't had a good year, missing ring time due to a pair of injuries that postponed and later canceled his scheduled fight with IBF welterweight titlist Devon Alexander (with an Alexander injury also delaying the bout once), but the 27-year-old Sheffield native says he's just putting that behind him and moving on. Brook will rematch Carson Jones on July 13 in Hull.
"It has been very frustrating. I have never really had an injury in my whole career and then just before the biggest fight of my life it happens to come along. It was horrible and I was absolutely gutted about it. ... I couldn't watch Alexander v Lee Purdy, I couldn't do it. Knowing that I should have been in there that night, I couldn't sit down and watch it."
... "I am on to the next chapter in my boxing career now and I am looking forward to having fun on July 13. ... I could have had an easier opponent but the last fight (with Jones) was an exciting, mouth-watering fight and I think the fans deserve it. It is going to be a tough fight and I am training hard for it but I am going to go out there and have fun and take care of business."
Brook (29-0, 19 KO) escaped with a win over Jones (35-9-3, 25 KO) last summer, winning a hard-fought majority decision in a fight that tested his mettle for really the first time as a pro. And though the 26-year-old Jones has gone 1-0-1 since then, drawing with Dean Byrne and scoring an easy win in Oklahoma, and thus lost a bit of his luster, Carson is not a fighter to be counted out. On a given night, he's still good enough to hang with everyone but the truly elite at 147, as he did against Brook last year.
If there are any lingering injury issues, or if the ring rust is a problem for "Special K," he may end up regretting the decision to go back in with Jones. But if he wins, he's right back on track toward that world title shot he's hoping to land sooner than later.