Brandon Cook isn’t your everyday fighter.
For starters, he doesn’t fight for money. Also, he’s prepared to take risks by boxing anyone. Perhaps more surprisingly, he also works a day job, as he’s done ever since turning pro 13 years ago.
He installs windows and doors, which probably isn’t a bad way to keep your hands, forearms and shoulders strong.
Except when it isn’t. The other day he had a minor accident with a glass pane that required five stitches in his arm. It’s put a cramp in him punching, although it preserves a cruel tradition of him frequently getting hurt preparing for big bouts.
“Man, I wish I could be perfect, but I have such bad luck,” he said from his workplace in Curtis, outside Toronto in Canada. “I always get injured, but I find a way to push through. We’re still weeks out. I’ll be good.”
The amiable, fast-talking Cook will soon be in South Africa for his October 26 showdown against unbeaten Shervantaigh Koopman, a slick in-and-out boxer who is going places and needs to beat Cook to reaffirm his claims to elite status.
The Canadian has long flirted with the cream of the junior-middleweight division, most memorably in 2018 when he fought Jaime Munguia for the WBO championship. He hasn’t lost since, taking on allcomers as a way to prove his credentials.
He is undaunted by the prospect of competing in South Africa, a long way from home where he is unlikely to have any support.
“I don’t care,” he says nonchalantly. “As an amateur I boxed in England and Italy for Team Canada. I fought Kanat Islam in Kazakhstan. As long as the opportunity right and it’s a legit title, I’ll go anywhere.”
He said this fight was easy to make, particularly with the WBA Intercontinental strap on the line, unlike two other recent offers that fell by the wayside. He was in the mix for a fight against Vergil Ortiz and also Xander Zayas, but nothing came of it.
“They likely wanted a bigger name,” he laughs. “I don’t care who you are. If the opportunity is right, I’ll be there.”
His boss has given him two weeks off for the fight, for which he’s grateful, but he’s already put in plenty of work for the Koopman challenge.
“He’s a good kid, looks like a nice fighter,” he reckoned after watching clips of his opponent. “I hear he’s never lost a round. I’m gonna have to change that.”
Cook and his team are devising a plan, but he won’t be constricted by it.
“I like to go through the first round and see how I must fight. I can do a couple of different ways,” he said of his fighting style. “I’ve got options and a number of styles. I can move, I can come forward. I can be defensive, I can mix it up.”
Although Koopman is unlikely to lure him into an all-out brawl, Cook wouldn’t mind.
He started out as a street fighter – 50 scraps or so, by his reckoning – before discovering the boxing gym in 2005. He had just 32 amateur bouts, chiefly because his aggressive style wasn’t well suited to the unpaid ranks.
“I didn’t like the pitter-patter stuff,” he reckons. “I tried to rip guys’ heads off. It wasn’t a style appreciated in the amateurs, but I sold out many places.”
His career was largely successful, if uneventful, through his first 17 pro bouts. Then, in 2017, he was matched with local rival Steven Butler for the IBF North and NABA titles.
Cook wore down his younger rival before decking him in the seventh round, leading to the referee waving off the action. Butler’s home crowd then exploded and Cook was hit in the head with a metal ice bucket thrown by an unruly local.
The video duly went rival and Cook’s fame blew up. He later got a tiger tattoo to commemorate what he endured that night.
He may be 38 now, but he still yearns for big fights, pointing out that the winner of this coming fight will likely get that chance with the loser pushed to the back of the queue.
He boxes to his own rhythm, but says he has long admired Canelo Alvarez. “I dunno what it is about him, but I’d love to fight like him. And Mike Tyson. An animal . . . just his demeanour.”
He was delighted to learn that countryman Lennox Lewis will be in attendance on October 26, especially as their only meeting was all too brief, at one of his fights. He hopes Lewis likes what he sees.
With a girlfriend and a “Covid baby” aged three, Cook says he will be driven by their love and support. His unadulterated love for the sport will also play a big part.
“I’m not doing this to get paid,” he laughed. “I’m doing this to have fun.”
