By Edward Chaykovsky
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25KOs) believed he was taking the path to a major upset while his fight played out two weeks ago with IBO/IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs).
Brook was doing very well in the contest, despite suffering a broken right eye socket in the second round.
The injury affected his vision as the fight played out and it was eventually stopped by his trainer, Dominic Ingle, in the fifth round. Ingle threw in the towel while Brook was on the back foot and Golovkin was coming forward and letting his hands go.
Brook believes he was able to push past the most dangerous part of the contest. He felt Golovkin was getting tired, breathing heavy and seemed ready for the taking. He felt an upset was coming if his eye had stayed in order.
"I told him [Dominic] in round two that my eye was broken and that I couldn't see so he was aware of what was going on in the fight," Brook told Sky Sports News. "He's seen that I couldn't see the shots and that I was trying to refocus my eye. That's when he waved it off. I did want to fight on because I'm a fighter but in the long run, the doctor said if I'd have taken more shots I could have been blinded.
"We live to fight another day and it was definitely the right choice because I couldn't see in the fight. If my eye hadn't have gone and I'd have been able to see him, I think I weathered the storm - the most intense part. I think he was starting to tire. I could see after every round he started to breathe heavily.
"I was in the fight, up on the scorecards and it was my time to take the shot from him and coming back were mine. I think it would have been a completely different fight if my eye hadn't have gone. I'm gutted because I could've shocked the world that night."
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