As Kell Brook announces his all-British clash with Matthew Hatton in March, the brash Sheffield puncher serves as a timely reminder of how easy it can be for impressionable, green-around-the-gills youngsters to fall, or be dragged, off the rails.
Brook has had his share of brushes with the law, and with lapses of commitment. In 2010 he was convicted of assault after an altercation in a club (punches were thrown) and popular belief was that a special talent could be withering on the good time vine. Brook?s conviction was overturned on appeal, and in 2011 he had the courage to ditch influential promoter Frank Warren and sign up with Barry Hearn?s Matchroom outfit ? so that at 25 years of age, and after a satisfactory American debut, that undoubted talent finally appears to be bearing fruit.
It?s perhaps not surprising that the origins of the Brook-Hatton encounter owe much to the bottle ? Brook recounts that he was motivated to make the fight after Matthew left him a boozy answerphone message in which the Mancunian, much the worse for wear, threw out various threats and epithets designed to force Brook into a fight. Matthew, remember, is the younger brother of one Ricky Hatton, he who defied the odds and medical opinion for many years by combining a career in the ring with long bouts of debauchery at the bar.
It should be remembered that eventually Ricky?s indiscretions caught up with him, and brought a stellar career to a frustrating halt.
