By Ian S Palmer
Hometown hero and former IBF World Welterweight Champion Kell Brook returns to the ring for the first time since December, 2018 when he takes on Mark DeLuca of Quincy, Massachusetts in a 12-round junior middleweight bout in Sheffield England this Saturday, Feb. 8th. The fight for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Jr. Middleweight Title can be seen live in North America on DAZN while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports. Brooks’ last outing was a 12-round unanimous decision over Michael Zerafa while DeLuca last fought in June when he beat Brandon Brewer by a 10-round unanimous decision.
The 33-year-old Brook lost his welterweight title to American Errol Spence when he was knocked out in the 11th round in May of 2017. He was also stopped in the fight before that when he moved up to middleweight to take on former WBA, IBF, IBO and WBC Champion Gennady Golovkin in a title fight in September of 2016 when he was halted in the fifth round. In addition, he also suffered facial injuries in the losses to Spence and Golovkin.
Brook put up an entertaining fight against Golovkin even though he moved up two weight divisions, but ultimately ended up with a broken orbital bone for his efforts. His fight against Spence was also an exciting one and he’s now looking for a third straight win to get his confidence and career back on the right track. He’s hoping to land another title shot or a crack at fellow Englishman and former world champion Amir Khan. Brook enters the ring on Saturday with a record of 38-2 with 26 Kos.
Brook won his IBF title in August of 2014 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California with an impressive majority-decision win over former champ Shawn Porter of America. He then sat out a few months after he was stabbed with a machete in the leg during an attack while on holiday in Tenerife. He’s certainly not the biggest junior middleweight around as he stands 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 69-inch reach.
He turned pro back in 2004 and has fought 209 rounds since. Before beating Porter, Brook was a former British Welterweight Champion. His biggest fights up until then were against the likes of Philip Kotey, Lovemore NDou, Matthew Hatton and Carson Jones. As far as power goes, Brook isn’t really known as a big hitter but his current knockout ratio stands at a pretty impressive 65 per cent and his power is slightly underrated. He also owns a pretty good chin despite the outcome of the Golovkin and Spence bouts and can fight on the back foot as well as going forward.
As for DeLuca, he’s a relative unknown 31-year-old southpaw who’s built up a pretty impressive record of 24-1 with 13 Kos. He’s boxed 139 rounds since turning pro in 2007 at the age of 19 but he has yet to face a contender let alone a former world champion. DeLuca’s lone loss came to Walter Wright via a 12-round split decision in June, 2018 in which he lost his NABA and IBA junior middleweight titles. He then beat Wright by 10-round unanimous decision to win his belts back in a rematch four months later.
He originally won the vacant straps with a 12-round unanimous decision over Anthony Lenk in December of 2017. Like Brook, DeLuca’s also just 5-feet-9-inches tall but has a 72-inch reach for a three-inch edge in that department. As far as power goes, DeLuca’s current knockout ratio stands at 52 per cent and he appears to have a pretty solid chin as he’s never been stopped as a pro. Before turning pro, DeLuca lost in the final of the 2006 New England Golden Gloves as a super middleweight. He was sent to Afghanistan in 2011 as a machine gunner with his Marine Reserve unit.
Prediction…
This is basically a tuneup bout for Brook but it might take him a few rounds to get going since he hasn’t fought in over a year. He’s more or less facing a club fighter in DeLuca, although a pretty good one, and should be able to post another W on his record.
