Kell Brook said on Monday's media Zoom call that he'd be the first one to beat Terence Crawford by stopping him or making him quit on the stool. At the time, Crawford didn't have a rebuttal for the challenger to his WBO welterweight championship on Saturday night.
Just because Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) didn't have a rebuttal then, the native of Nebraska made sure he let Brook know at Wednesday's press conference that he's the one who's quit in previous fights, not him.
"He's gonna have to – you know what I mean – live up to his words," Crawford said. "You know, I'm not the one that ever quit in a fight. You know, I can't say the same for him, though."
Crawford alluded to when Brook suffered a broken orbital bone when he moved two weight classes to challenge then-unified middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin. Brook was absorbing an enormous amount of punishment to the point that his trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel to stop the bout in the fifth round. In his next fight against Errol Spence Jr. for Brook's IBF welterweight title, Brook suffered another broken orbital. He went down to a knee after a Spence shot and didn't make the referee's count to lose in the 11th round.
How did Brook feel about Crawford's comments? Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) dismissed them and dared Crawford to do what Golovkin and Spence.
"I've had the bone broken in an eye and not been able to see," Brook said to Boxing Scene. "That's his opinion. Let's see if he can make me quit. Let's see if he can break me, because, you know, I'm willing to die in that ring. I'm telling you now, this is sh— or bust for me. Everything's gone into this fight — everything. It's not a joke. This is a serious game."