Kell Brook will be up to 20% more powerful at light middleweight against Sergey Rabchenko

That’s the view of gym-mate Atif Shafiq, who is witnessing the former welterweight champion blossom as he heads towards his first light-middleweight fight, against Sergey Rabchenko at Sheffield Arena on March 3.

“Kell is flying, he’s looking great in training.

“He is pushing through all the sessions and with the extra half a stone he has up at 11st he’s got plenty of fuel in him to give that extra 10/20% in training” said Shafiq, who is on the undercard against fellow Rotherham fighter Lee Appleyard.

“He wants to win another world title and seems to still be enjoying the hard work it takes to get there. And that’s fair enough - boxing is a hard way to make a living.”

Sam Eggington - once thought to be in the frame to be Brook’s next opponent has been forced to pull out of his own debut fight at light-middleweight on the Sheffield bill, after picking up a head injury in training.

Promoters Matchroom have now signed an opponent for Barry Awad (Kid Galahad.)

The Wincobank fighter won the IBF Inter-Continental Featherweight title in his last scrap. But his four previous fights were against opponents with losing records.

Now he will face Irving Barry from Panama, who lost a 12-rounder to Jhonny Gonzalez last year and has a Won 23 Lost 7 Drawn 2 sheet.

Shafiq says: “Barry is training like a machine as always.”

The bill includes a Doncaster duo, heavyweight David Allen in a re-match with Lenroy Thomas (Commonwealth title) and Gavin McDonnell takes on Gamal Yafai (WBC International Super Bantamweight.)