Former welterweight world titleholder Kell Brook suffered an undisclosed injury and is off the Matchroom Boxing card headlined by the heavyweight fight between Dillian Whyte and former world titlist Joseph Parker on Saturday at the O2 Arena in London.
In his second fight since he lost his world title by punishing 11th-round knockout and suffered a broken orbital bone against Errol Spence Jr. in May 2017, Brook was due to fight Brandon Cook in a junior middleweight bout but withdrew a few days ago because of the injury. Matchroom Boxing declined to specify what sort of injury Brook had suffered or how long he was expected to be sidelined.
England’s Sam Eggington (23-4, 15 KOs) stepped in to face Cook (20-1, 13 KOs), of Ontario, Canada, but just as quickly was forced to withdraw after what Matchroom Boxing announced as an injury suffered in a sparring session.
A heavyweight fight between Nick Webb (12-0, 10 KOs) and Dave Allen (13-4-2, 10 KOs), who will meet in an eliminator for the British title, was added to the card as a replacement.
Brook (37-2, 26 KOs), 32, of England, returned from the loss to Spence in March by moving up in weight and knocking out fringe contender Sergey Rabchenko in the second round.
The card will include unified women’s lightweight world titleholder Katie Taylor (9-0, 4 KOs), of Ireland, defending her two belts against mandatory challenger Kimberly Connor (13-3-2, 5 KOs), of Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as a significant heavyweight match between former world title challengers Dereck Chisora (28-8, 20 KOs), of England, and Carlos Takam (35-4-1, 27 KOs), of France.