By Scott Gilfoid: I must say I was very, very impressed with the performance from undefeated Kell Brook (25-0, 17 KO’s) last night in his 6th round TKO victory over Rafal Jackiewicz (38-10-1, 19 KO’s) at the Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Brook, 25, showed a lot of talent and versatility in that fight in beating a fairly decent world class contender in Jackiewicz. Brook looked more good enough to beat Amir Khan if given the chance to fight him, which he probably won’t. Brook has a lot of poise, power and different elements to his game that I think would be too much for Khan to deal with.

What I especially liked in Brook’s performance was his ability to punch with power from both the inside and the outside. Brook isn’t limited to just throwing with big power from the outside. He’s equally dangerous in close and seems to throw with almost the same power from a very short distance than he does when he’s throwing from the outside. In that respect, Brook reminds me a lot of Marcos Maidana, who punches with a lot of power in close. Maidana gave Khan fits with his inside power punching and really puffed up Khan’s face in their fight last December.

I’m still doubtful whether Brook can beat a quality welterweight like Andre Berto, Victor Ortiz, Mike Jones, or Jesus Soto Karass. I’m not even going to mention Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., because they’re simply much too good for Brook to compete with. But I don’t know that Brook can compete with Berto, Ortiz, Jones or Karass either. Brook was good against a punching bag that just stood there and did nothing all night long in Jackiewicz, but you put Brook in with someone that’s firing punches back at him all night long, and I think we could see a different fight than we did last night.

What I didn’t like about Brook in his win over Jackiewicz was his lack of hand speed. He’s not very fast, and he seems to lack arm length for his height. He needs to get really close to land because his arms just don’t seem long enough to land from long distance. It was no issue against a fighter that refused to punch back in Jackiewicz, but you put him in with a tall welterweight like the 6’0″ Mike Jones or a busy one like Ortiz, and I think Brook would be in for a world of hurt in those fights.

Brook also needs to fix his defense. He looked pathetic last night. Jackiewicz hit him with pretty much every right hand he threw in the fight. It was like watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. throwing right hands and never missing. luckily for Brook, Jackiewicz rarely threw right hands but his connect percentage with that punch must have been in the 80% and higher range because he never seemed to miss. Brook would just stand there like a statue each time Jackiewicz would throw a right hand it would sail through Brook’s useless guard to tag him in the head. This isn’t a good sign. If you can’t block shots against a guy that’s throwing 10 punches per round like Jackiewicz, then what in the heck are you going to do when you fight someone that throws 80 to 100 punches per round like Karass? I’d see what Karass would have done to Brook had he been fighting him last night instead of the punching bag that he in with him.

All in all, good matchmaking by Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn in finding someone with a high ranking but with no interest in throwing punches. It was an easy win which proved nothing whatsoever about how good Brook is. Like I said, I still think Brook is more than good enough to beat Khan though. It’s too bad Khan probably won’t fight him anytime soon, if ever.