Boxing: IBF world champion Kell Brook recalls horrific Tenerife knife attack

IBF welterweight world champion Kell Brook has recalled in chilling detail the vicious knife attack which left him fighting for his life.

Speaking on The Morning View, Brook spoke about the unprovoked machete attack in Tenerife in the early hours of September 4 which left him needing 32 metal staples to close a gaping wound in his left leg.

He paused for four or five seconds and before I knew it he was standing over me with a knife and, with no warning, he came and swiped me in the leg.

The Sheffield-based fighter was in the Spanish holiday resort with his pregnant girlfriend and two-year-old daughter on vacation after achieving his lifetime dream on August 16 by defeating Shaun Porter in California to win the world title.

Brook remembers leaving a house party in the early hours to continue drinking at the residence of a man he had met earlier that evening and he described the horrific turn of events that unfolded there.

“We were getting on fine and he was going on about street fighting and boxing, for some reason, saying they were two different things,” Brook recalled.

“He said in street fighting, you can pick weapons up like knives. I just came back and said ‘anyone that picks up a knife, in my eyes, is a coward – anyone can pick a knife up’.

“He paused for four or five seconds and before I knew it he was standing over me with a knife and, with no warning, he came and swiped me in the leg.

Horrible

“Blood was just all over. I thought ‘this is it for you now’. I thought I was going to die there so it has been bad. It has been horrible.”

I feel a lot better than I did. Coming down here to Sheffield United and getting this work done, there has been some massive improvements.

The 28-year-old is now on the road to recovery and has turned to his favourite football team, Sheffield United, to aid him in his recovery.

Brook is working with the team’s physios two or three times a week in a bid to get his leg back to full strength.

The undefeated fighter said the club have been a huge help to him and now that he is close to returning to full strength, he revealed he is targeting March 7 for a return to the ring.

“It has been a nightmare but I have had my family around me and my friends and they have helped me get through it and I am not far off coming back now,” he said.

“I feel a lot better than I did. Coming down here and getting this work done – there has been some massive improvements.

“I just can’t wait to get back in the gym. I have got itchy knuckles now.”