Have I missed something?
Because somewhere between Kell Brook talking about returning to the ring for what sounded like an emotional tribute to Ricky Hatton and the present day, we appear to have arrived at Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr.
And apparently we’re supposed to treat that as a perfectly reasonable progression.
Brook has revealed that he intends to come out of retirement and return to professional boxing, saying that a major fight is close to being finalised. The 40-year-old has suggested he will compete at middleweight or super-middleweight and, when Chris Eubank Jr’s name was put to him, he certainly didn’t rule it out.
Perhaps it isn’t Eubank.
Perhaps we’re all putting two and two together and getting five.
But if Kell Brook vs ChFor me, but I’ve now onris Eubank Jr really is where this is heading, I have one fairly simple question.
Has everybody lost their minds?
Because there are so many things about this that don’t make sense.
Brook hasn’t fought professionally for more than four years. His last opponent was another retiring veteran in Amir Khan. He’s 40 years old. He spent the best years of his career at welterweight. He suffered serious injuries during the latter stages of that career.
And now we’re talking about him potentially returning against a career middleweight?
I don’t get it.
I Didn’t Particularly Agree With the Ricky Hatton Comeback Either
I should probably make something clear before going any further.
When Brook’s original comeback was announced as part of the Ricky Hatton tribute, I wasn’t exactly convinced by that either.
I wrote about my concerns at the time:
I understood the reasoning behind it. I understood the emotional connection to Hatton, the desire to raise awareness around mental health and addiction and the intention to support the Hatton Foundation.
Those were all worthwhile reasons for staging an event.
What I questioned was whether Kell Brook actually needed to return to professional boxing to achieve them.
There is always something that makes me uncomfortable when a retired fighter starts talking about one more fight, particularly when that fighter has already had a long career and taken significant punishment.
Brook had got out.
More importantly, he’d got out on a high.
He finally fought Amir Khan in February 2022, dominated him and stopped him in the sixth round. After spending years being asked when that fight would happen, Brook finally settled the rivalry and then walked away.
There aren’t many better opportunities to close a career than that.
So even when the proposed comeback involved Eisa Al Dah and had the emotional significance of being connected to Hatton, I wasn’t sitting here thinking it was something Brook needed to do.
I could at least understand it.
That’s the difference.
I could understand why Brook might want one final appearance connected to somebody he respected, particularly when there was a charitable purpose behind it.
Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr requires an entirely different conversation.
This isn’t Brook putting the gloves on one final time for a tribute.
If this happens, Brook is properly coming back.
And apparently he doesn’t just think he can still fight.
He thinks he can return after more than four years away, move up in weight and potentially compete against Chris Eubank Jr.
That’s where you’ve completely lost me.
Four Years Is a Long Time in Boxing
This is where I think people can get distracted by the ages.
Brook is 40.
Eubank is 36.
On paper, four years doesn’t sound enormous.
But boxing ages aren’t measured purely by the date on your birth certificate.
They’re measured in fights, rounds, injuries, punishment, inactivity and miles on the clock.
Brook’s last professional fight was against Amir Khan, another fighter approaching the end of his career. Brook won convincingly, finally settling a rivalry British boxing had spent years waiting to see.
When he subsequently announced his retirement, it actually felt like one of those rare occasions when a boxer had managed to leave at exactly the right moment.
He had beaten Khan.
He had settled the argument.
He had made his money.
He had been a world champion.
What exactly was left to prove?
At the time, Brook spoke about being at peace with retirement and acknowledged just how dangerous boxing can be. He had finished his career with his faculties intact and didn’t appear to see himself being tempted back.
Four years later, here we are.
And this isn’t a fighter whose career passed without significant punishment.
We Can’t Pretend Kell Brook Hasn’t Already Paid a Price
Nothing I’m saying here is intended to diminish Kell Brook’s career.
Quite the opposite.
Brook was an outstanding welterweight.
His victory over Shawn Porter in California to win the IBF welterweight championship remains one of the finest away performances by a British fighter of his generation.
He went into an unbeaten champion’s backyard and took the belt from him.
That is the Kell Brook we should remember.
But that isn’t necessarily the Kell Brook who would be walking into the ring in 2026.
His later career was brutal.
Brook jumped from welterweight to middleweight to challenge Gennadiy Golovkin in 2016 and suffered a fractured right orbital bone before the fight was stopped in the fifth round.
He then returned to welterweight against Errol Spence Jr and suffered another fractured orbital bone, this time around his left eye, as he lost his IBF title.
There was also the 2020 stoppage defeat against Terence Crawford.
These weren’t easy nights against ordinary opposition.
Brook fought some of the finest fighters of his generation.
He deserves enormous respect for that.
But respect for what somebody achieved shouldn’t require us to pretend those fights never happened when assessing what they should be doing at 40.
And that’s before we even get to what might be the biggest sporting problem with Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr.
The weight.
What the Hell Makes Brook Think His Power Will Carry to Middleweight?
Brook carried decent power at welterweight.
He wasn’t necessarily a devastating one-punch knockout artist, but he was strong at 147lbs, punched hard enough to earn respect and had the accuracy and timing to make that power count.
Opponents couldn’t simply walk through him.
But what the hell makes anyone think that same power will automatically follow him to middleweight?
Or, even more remarkably, super-middleweight?
Brook can weigh 160lbs.
I’m sure he can weigh 168lbs.
That’s not the question.
There is a massive difference between weighing like a middleweight and punching like one.
The Kell Brook who was physically strong at welterweight was physically strong against other welterweights.
Now we’re potentially talking about asking a 40-year-old Brook, after more than four years away from professional boxing, to make naturally bigger men respect the same punches.
Why should we assume he can?
Putting additional weight on Brook’s body doesn’t magically increase his punching power in proportion.
It doesn’t mean his shots will have the same effect on somebody accustomed to taking punches from career middleweights.
And it certainly doesn’t mean he’ll carry the same physical advantages he enjoyed at 147lbs.
We’ve Already Seen Brook at Middleweight
The strange thing is that we don’t even have to speculate completely.
We’ve already seen Brook jump to middleweight.
We all remember what happened.
In 2016, an unbeaten 30-year-old Kell Brook jumped from welterweight to challenge Gennadiy Golovkin.
And Brook actually had moments.
His speed caused Golovkin problems. He landed combinations. He showed tremendous courage and reminded everyone just how technically talented he was.
But eventually the physical difference told.
Golovkin kept coming.
Brook couldn’t keep him away.
He suffered a fractured orbital bone and his corner stopped the fight in the fifth round.
Now, obviously, Chris Eubank Jr isn’t Gennadiy Golovkin.
I’m not suggesting he is.
But that’s not really the point.
The point is that the Brook who fought Golovkin was 30 years old, unbeaten, active and operating at the absolute peak of his career.
That version of Kell Brook found moving directly from welterweight to middleweight an enormous physical challenge.
So why should we assume a 40-year-old Brook, after four years of retirement, is suddenly better equipped to do it?
It doesn’t make sense.
Four Years Away Doesn’t Turn You Into a Middleweight
This is another important distinction.
Brook hasn’t spent the last four years developing into a middleweight.
He’s been retired.
If he’d spent those four years remaining active, gradually moving through the weights, adjusting his style and proving his power against larger opponents, we’d have something to judge.
He hasn’t.
We’re effectively being asked to jump from the Amir Khan fight in February 2022 to Brook potentially facing Chris Eubank Jr in 2026 and assume everything will translate.
His timing.
His reactions.
His speed.
His punch resistance.
His stamina.
And now his power at a significantly higher weight.
Based on what?
Looking good in the gym?
Sparring?
Being in great physical condition?
None of that is professional boxing.
The real test comes when somebody is trying to punch you back.
And if Brook lands cleanly on Eubank early and Eubank realises there isn’t enough coming back to hurt him, that’s when this could become a serious problem.
Because what happens then?
Brook would potentially be the smaller man without the speed he possessed at his peak, without the reactions of his twenties and early thirties and without enough power to discourage a naturally bigger opponent.
That’s not a situation I particularly want to see him discover halfway through a professional fight.
Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr Isn’t About Who Was Better
This is another distinction worth making.
If you asked me who had the better career at their respective peaks, I’d comfortably argue Brook.
He became a genuine world champion at welterweight and defeated an unbeaten Shawn Porter to do it.
But that’s completely irrelevant to whether Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr makes sense today.
Past greatness doesn’t guarantee present ability.
The Brook who beat Porter was 28 years old, unbeaten and operating naturally at welterweight.
The Brook potentially facing Eubank would be 40 years old, more than four years removed from professional competition and fighting somewhere around middleweight or super-middleweight.
Those are two completely different propositions.
Boxing has a strange habit of allowing the reputation of the fighter somebody used to be to influence how we assess the fighter standing in front of us today.
That’s dangerous.
But Chris Eubank Jr Has Questions of His Own
None of this means we should pretend Eubank is currently some unstoppable force.
Far from it.
There are serious questions surrounding him too.
Eubank hasn’t fought since losing his rematch with Conor Benn in November 2025, when he looked a shadow of the fighter who had beaten Benn in their first meeting earlier that year.
Afterwards, Eubank revealed that he had been dealing with health problems. He subsequently said he wouldn’t box again until he was back to 100 per cent and admitted he didn’t know when that would be.
So no, we don’t know what version of Chris Eubank Jr will return either.
And that actually creates another uncomfortable question.
Are fighters suddenly looking at Eubank and seeing opportunity?
Is Everybody Suddenly Seeing Chris Eubank Jr as Vulnerable?
This is the part of the story that interests me most.
Eubank still has a valuable name.
He can sell a fight.
He generates headlines.
He has spent years as one of British boxing’s most recognisable figures.
But the perception around him has changed.
Edgar Berlanga has already called for a fight with Eubank, something I recently discussed on CMBoxing:
Now Brook’s name is being mentioned.
There have been other potential opponents discussed around Eubank as well.
Maybe that’s simply because he remains commercially attractive.
Or maybe fighters aren’t looking at Chris Eubank Jr’s name anymore.
Maybe they’re looking at his vulnerability.
That’s an important difference.
Eubank looked badly diminished against Benn in their rematch. He subsequently acknowledged health problems. He’s now 36 himself.
For somebody contemplating a comeback, perhaps Eubank suddenly looks like the perfect combination: a big name, a big payday and potentially a fighter who is no longer what he once was.
The problem is that Eubank could be looking across the ring and thinking exactly the same thing about Brook.
And Eubank being vulnerable doesn’t magically turn Kell Brook into a middleweight.
Both things can be true.
Eubank can have serious questions hanging over him while still representing an enormous leap for a 40-year-old former welterweight who hasn’t fought professionally since 2022.
The Fighter’s Mindset Never Really Retires
Perhaps this is ultimately what Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr tells us about boxing.
Fighters retire.
The fighter inside them doesn’t necessarily retire with them.
How many times have we seen it?
A boxer walks away apparently satisfied. A year passes. Then another.
They start training again.
The body feels good.
They spar.
The competitive instinct returns.
Suddenly, they aren’t thinking like a retired fighter anymore.
They’re thinking like the person who spent their entire adult life believing they could beat whoever stood in front of them.
And perhaps that’s what is happening with Brook.
You don’t become a world champion without extraordinary self-belief.
You don’t travel to America and take an unbeaten champion’s world title without believing in yourself.
You certainly don’t jump two weight divisions to fight Gennadiy Golovkin unless there is something inside you that genuinely believes you can do things everybody else thinks are impossible.
That mentality made Kell Brook successful.
At 40, it could also be the mentality that convinces him a fight he doesn’t need is a good idea.
Maybe Brook looks in the mirror and doesn’t see a retired 40-year-old boxer.
Maybe he still sees the man who beat Shawn Porter.
That’s understandable.
I’m just not sure boxing will see the same thing when the bell rings.
And Then There’s the Money
We shouldn’t dance around this part either.
Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr would sell.
Two enormous names in British boxing.
Two men with questions surrounding where they are in their careers.
The comeback story.
The age.
The uncertainty.
The possibility that either man could be finished.
Promoters wouldn’t struggle to market it.
Fans would watch it.
I’d watch it.
That’s the strange contradiction at the centre of this whole thing.
I can sit here questioning whether Kell Brook should be anywhere near Chris Eubank Jr after four years out of professional boxing, and if the fight gets announced tomorrow I’ll immediately want to know when and where it’s happening.
That’s boxing.
Something doesn’t necessarily have to make sporting sense to make commercial sense.
And increasingly, commercial sense seems to be enough.
There would undoubtedly be money on the table for Brook.
Potentially a lot of it.
And I’m never going to criticise a fighter for wanting to earn money from a sport in which they literally put their health on the line.
But there has to be a point where the size of the cheque doesn’t answer the sporting questions.
Kell Brook Has Nothing Left to Prove
This is ultimately why I struggle with the idea.
What does Brook gain?
If he beats Eubank, does it somehow validate his career?
No.
He already did that years ago.
He became IBF welterweight champion.
He went to America and beat Shawn Porter.
He shared the ring with Golovkin, Spence and Crawford.
He finally fought Amir Khan and stopped him.
Kell Brook’s place in British boxing history isn’t waiting for Chris Eubank Jr to confirm it.
That’s already secure.
Maybe Brook simply misses boxing.
Maybe he believes he can still compete at the highest level.
Maybe the money is too good to ignore.
Maybe after spending his entire life as a fighter, being retired never quite felt natural.
I can understand all of those things.
But understanding why somebody wants to do something isn’t the same as believing they should.
Has Everybody Lost Their Minds?
Perhaps Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr never happens.
Brook hasn’t confirmed his opponent, and until an announcement arrives, Eubank remains speculation.
But the fact that we’re even discussing it tells us something about boxing.
Retirement in this sport increasingly feels less like the end of a career and more like an extended break.
I didn’t particularly agree with Brook returning for the Ricky Hatton tribute in the first place.
I understood it.
That’s different.
There was an emotional reason behind that appearance, a charitable purpose and, at least initially, the possibility that Brook could put the gloves on one final time and leave it there.
Going from that to potentially fighting Chris Eubank Jr is something completely different.
This would be a 40-year-old former welterweight champion, after more than four years away from professional boxing, returning directly into a major fight at a weight where we have absolutely no idea whether the weapons that made him successful will still work.
Can he still move like Kell Brook?
Can he still react like Kell Brook?
Can he still take a punch like Kell Brook?
And perhaps most importantly, can a man who carried decent power at welterweight make a career middleweight respect him after four years out?
Maybe he can.
But that’s an awful lot of maybes for a fight Brook simply doesn’t need.
Eubank’s own problems don’t suddenly make it sensible.
If anything, the fact that both men carry significant questions makes the whole thing even stranger.
Kell Brook has already proved he was a world-class fighter.
He doesn’t need Chris Eubank Jr to prove it again.
The more interesting question is why, at 40 years old and after everything boxing has already taken from him, he apparently believes that he does.
Have Your Say on CMBoxing
Has everybody lost their minds, or can you actually see the sporting logic behind Kell Brook vs Chris Eubank Jr?
Would Brook’s experience and ability make this genuinely competitive, or are people allowing Eubank’s recent problems to disguise just how enormous a comeback this would be?
And perhaps the biggest question of all: after four years away, do you really believe Brook can carry his welterweight power into middleweight and make Eubank respect it?
Share your thoughts, join the conversation and visit CMBoxing for more boxing opinion, analysis and discussion from across the sport.