Dominic Ingle Pays Credit to Kell Brook Ahead of First Title Defence

The wait is almost over for Kell Brook. On March 28, he will finally get to defend the IBF welterweight title in his home city of Sheffield.

Jo Jo Dan is the mandatory challenger for a belt that Brook claimed from Shawn Porter with a points triumph over the American in California last year.

A first defence had been scheduled to happen at the end of 2014, per Dan Rafael of ESPN, but Brook's career was put on hold when he was stabbed in the leg while on holiday in Tenerife.

The injury he sustained required 32 staples to repair. In an interview with the Daily Mail, he admitted he feared for his life at one stage, let alone his career. 

Thankfully for Brook, he made a full recovery from the surgery and would be given the all-clear to carry on boxing. 

He underwent a lengthy rehab period to regain the strength in his leg before finally being able to return to work at the famous Ingle family gym in Wincobank, Sheffield. 

As he gets set to face Dan at the Motorpoint Arena, the only reminder of that horrific incident in Spain is the lengthy scar on Brook's left thigh.

“Kell had to have something like 10 weeks after the operation of doing absolutely nothing," Dominic Ingle, his trainer, said.

“By the time he steps in to the ring on March 28, he will have done 20 weeks training.

“The first six or eight weeks were like taking baby steps, really. It was just about seeing how he responded.

“It’s been a slow process and a long camp, but luckily he’s back on track. There seems to be no long-term effects from the injury he sustained.

“If you didn’t know he had been attacked, and his leg damaged, you would never know that there had been anything wrong with him."

Ingle is no stranger to training world champions. He worked with Naseem Hamed, as well as Johnny Nelson and Junior Witter.

Brook is the latest success story to come out of the Ingles' gym, though at times it must have felt like it would never quite happen for the man nicknamed "The Special One."

On three occasions, he missed out on opportunities to take on then-IBF champion Devon Alexander due to injuries, the last of which was a stress fracture of the foot.

It was a frustrating period in Brook's career, and Ingle is full of praise for the dedication and commitment he has shown to come through the tough times: “He's been in the gym since he was nine. He is now coming up for 29 this year.

“He turned pro with us and has had a year or two out, but he’s been back with us for the last six or so years.

“It’s taken a lot of time for Kell, you’ve got to give him credit for the perseverance he’s had, because I’ve seen others who would’ve packed up.

“With Naseem, we expected him to be world champion. He achieved that at 20 or 21.

“We expected it of Kell too. But he got lost a little bit, he changed promoters and changed gyms, and maybe that’s why it didn’t happen when it should have done.

“Kell became a champion late. Now he needs a good two or three years now with no more setbacks, no more injuries or complications, otherwise we are probably not going to see the best of him.”

His chance at the IBF title finally came in August of 2014 against Porter, who had beaten Alexander to become champion. He not only held the strap but also had home advantage against the mandatory challenger from England.

However, Ingle knew long before the first bell sounded that Brook was going to return home with the belt.

“You could see the moment Kell got to America that he was relaxed and confident.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

"He had some good training over there, had some good sparring, and his whole mindset was that he wasn’t fazed.

“He’d been to America earlier that year, plus we took a team of kids with us from the gym to make it long a home away from home.

“With some people you see the nerves kick in. With Kell it was a case of him knowing he just had to get in the ring, do what he does best and prove that the kid wasn’t as good as him.”

As for the fight itself, Ingle was delighted that Brook proved his doubters wrong with a polished performance. He won by majority decision, with one of the ringside judges scoring it 114-114.

Even Floyd Mayweather was impressed, telling Fight Hype that Brook had "earned it the hard way" after becoming the latest world champion in a star-studded division.

“Porter was a world champion and a lot of people didn’t think Kell was going to win that fight in America," Ingle replied when asked to recall that triumphant night in the StubHub Center.

“People said he’d never fought anybody, some didn’t give him much of a chance. But he pulled it off.

“I said before the fight that if you are going to put money on it, put it on Kell to win on points. People said he had no chance. 'It’s in America and you’ll not get that,' they said.”

“But Kell nullified everything that Porter did. He also threw the cleaner shots.

“It’s ironic, really, that the English judge sat on the fence and gave it a draw. When I heard that score read out I wondered what was going on.

“But, in my mind, even if he hadn’t got the decision, Kell had won the fight.

"That would have been no consolation (had he lost), but it’s a lot better than being beat up and stopped in three or four rounds, as some people expected to happen.

“It was nice to prove the critics wrong, it was nice to see Kell get everything that he had worked so hard for.”

Brook fulfilled a boyhood dream in becoming a world champion. Now, though, he faces a new challenge in remaining at the top.

Ingle described Dan as a "potential banana skin" that will not be underestimated, adding: "I remember after the last fight that Porter said he had underestimated Kell. That’s the thing—no matter how good you’ve been in your fights before, you cannot sit back in the next one and think it’s a formality."

There is simply too much on the line for the unbeaten Brook to take any challenger lightly. 

A 34th straight win will again lead to questions about the possibility of a summer showdown with fellow Brit Amir Khan, who stirred the pot before his bout with Alexander last December by claiming it was "a bigger, more difficult fight" than facing his compatriot, per Gareth A. Davies of The Telegraph.

Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

“It almost seems to me that Amir Khan is poking a stick through the tiger’s cage," Ingle said.

"He is trying to wind him up, trying to say Kell hasn't got enough respect for him.

"Realistically, fighters get respect by beating each other up. You respect what they've got, but you don't not fight someone because they don't respect you. It is down to you to prove it, earn it.

"It’s almost like (he's) hiding behind excuses.

“Somewhere down the line, the fight will come off. It’s just a case of when and where."

Brook himself said in February that it is "too big of a fight not to happen" at some stage. 

But, before any further talk of Khan, he must firstly take care of business against Dan, a southpaw with a 34-2 record who was born in Romania but is now based in Canada.

This time the shoe is on the other foot for Brook—he is no longer the underdog on the road, but the champion in the firing line.

It is a position he has waited so long, and worked so hard, to find himself in.

Rob Lancaster is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in this article were obtained via interview.