Kell Brook

Ezekiel "Kell" Brook (born 3 May 1986) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2022.

Brook's first fight as a professional took place in September 2004 with a 6-round points victory over experienced journeyman Peter Buckley at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.

He would fight again four more times that year to end 2004 with a record of 5–0 in just four months.

The fight, for the WBO Inter-Continental title, pitched Brook against Poland's Krzysztof Bienias, a man last beaten by Junior Witter in 2005 and with a run of seventeen straight wins.

Brook collected his second career title when in the sixth round the fight was stopped by the referee following a dominant display by the Yorkshireman.

At regional level, he held multiple welterweight titles, including the British welterweight title from 2008 to 2010.

Brook went about learning his trade against a host of journeymen before getting the opportunity in June 2008 to fight for the British welterweight title having compiled a winning record of 16–0.

The championship fight at London's York Hall saw Kell Brook take on Welshman Barrie Jones for the vacant title.

The fight was not without controversy however as the previous incumbent, Kevin McIntyre, had been stripped of the title after he sustained an injury and had to pull out of his scheduled defence against the Yorkshireman.

Brook ended up winning the vacant title with a seventh-round technical knockout (TKO) of Jones who had come in at relatively short notice.

Having won the title Brook was then ordered to face the former champion and the bout took take place in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall on 14 November 2008.

Prior to the fight and referring to the bad blood that has built up between the two fighter's Brook said, "Once I knock out McIntyre in style then there will be no question mark over who should be British champion."

When the fight finally did happen, Brook put McIntyre down three times in the first round to win by TKO to send the Glasgow crowd home disappointed.

On 30 January 2009 Brook returned to the York Hall to meet former marine Stuart Elwell in a voluntary second defence.

The fight again ended quickly when the referee stopped the fight in the second round, handing victory to Brook.

He claimed the Lonsdale belt outright on 20 July 2009 when making his third defence against Prizefighter winner Michael Lomax.

The fight, at the MEN Arena in Manchester, was on the undercard to Amir Khan's world championship victory over Andreas Kotelnik and saw Brook win by TKO in the third round.

After the fight Brook said that he believed he was the best in Britain but couldn't say for sure until he's beaten Chorley's Michael Jennings who he challenged to a match-up.

On 25 September 2009, Brook pipped fellow champion Nathan Cleverly for the prestigious title of Young British Boxer of the Year award, as voted for by the Boxing Writer's Club.

The vote was the closest in the history of the award with Brook claiming the honour by one vote over Cleverly who held both the British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles.

In winning the award Brook joined a list of boxers which included the likes of Ken Buchanan, John H. Stracey, Barry McGuigan, Nigel Benn, Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe and Amir Khan.

Brook's first fight of 2010 took place in Liverpool on 12 March 2010.

Brook's long-awaited fight against Michael Jennings was due to be next on 3 July 2010 until a rib injury forced the fight to be postponed for a second time.

The fight, for Brook's British title was then scheduled to take place between Jennings and former Commonwealth welterweight champion John O'Donnell before O'Donnell pulled out and was then rescheduled between Brook and Jennings.

Finally, on 18 September 2010 Brook boxed Michael Jennings at the LG Arena in Birmingham.

Brook defeated Jennings via fifth-round TKO after the latter sustained a cut, with the referee deeming the injury too severe for the bout to continue.

The win doubled as Brooks's fourth defence of his British title and the first defence of his WBO regional title.

On 11 December 2010 Brook made his second defence of his WBO Inter-Continental title, defeating Phillip Kotey via second-round TKO.

The win ensured that Brook kept his number one ranking with the WBO.

On 8 April 2011 Brook split from promoter Frank Warren and joined the Matchroom Sport boxing stable under Eddie Hearn, with Brook saying that he was "really buzzing" to have joined the outfit.

Hearn said that he was "excited about adding Kell to our stable".

Speaking of Brook he said "Kell oozes class and has that something special about him – in short he is going to be a superstar."

Brook's first contest for the promotional outfit was on 25 June 2011 at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield and resulted in a twelve-round unanimous decision (UD) victory against Lovemore N'dou, capturing the vacant WBA Inter-Continental title in the process.

On 17 March 2012, Kell Brook took his undefeated run to 27 fights by beating Matthew Hatton, brother of Ricky Hatton, by UD in Sheffield.

The scores were 119–107, 119–108 and 118–109 all in favour of Brook.

He held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight title from 2014 to 2017, and challenged once for a unified middleweight world title in 2016.

In May 2017, Brook was ranked as the world's best active welterweight by The Ring magazine.

Brook had his first amateur fight at age 12 under the guidance of Brendan Ingle.

At the end of his amateur career, he had won 31 of his 36 fights, winning two Amateur Boxing Association of England titles and two National Association of Boys Clubs British Boxing Championships and a gold medal in the 4 Nations.

An early inspiration for Brook was Naseem Hamed, who was also trained by Ingle at the same Wincobank gym.