Kell Brook still has some gas left in the tank.
The former welterweight titleholder returned from a 14-month layoff to stop American journeyman Mark DeLuca inside seven rounds of a scheduled 12-round junior middleweight bout Saturday at the Sheffield Arena in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England.
The gulf in class between the two fighters was evident from the opening round. In Round 7, Brook put on the finishing touches by connecting on a counter left hand that dropped his opponent for the second time in the fight. The referee counted out the bloodied DeLuca.
“I felt very fit,” Brook said when asked post-fight to assess his performance. “Obviously a year and a half, I felt a little bit rusty, but once I got a bit into it … (DeLuca) was tough, he’s never been stopped.”
Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) has struggled in recent years. He sustained orbital bone fractures in his knockout losses to Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. and was stabbed in the leg while on vacation in Tenerife. He has also difficulty making the welterweight limit.
With the win over DeLuca, Brook promised a new beginning as he aims to become a two-division titleholder.
“I’m a new kid, I’m a new person,” he said. “I’m constantly in the gym. I’m living like a professional. … 2020 is the year that I become a champion again.”
A possible opponent is Liverpool’s Liam Smith, who was sitting ringside. Both fighters are promoted by Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn. Asked if that fight interested him, Brook responded, “Of course it does. I don’t shy away from any fighter. I’ve sparred him. We’ll sit down with Eddie (Hearn) this week.”
The southpaw DeLuca (24-2, 13 KOs) was competitive in the first couple of rounds as Brook felt him out and shook off rust but it was all downhill for the Massachusetts product beginning in Round 3, when Brook knocked DeLuca to the canvas for the first time in the fight with a combination. DeLuca was able to shake it off and gamely went right after Brook, who answered with an uppercut that buckled him. By that point, DeLuca’s face was a bloody mess.
DeLuca started off strong in Round 4, landing a right hand that momentarily caused Brook to hold, but Brook would answer back, staggering DeLuca with straight rights to close out the round as the pro-Brook crowd went into a frenzy.
This was Brook’s first bout since his win over Michael Zerafa in December 2018.