By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook (27-0, 18 KO’s) will finally be taking a small step up in class when he takes on #3 IBF welterweight contender Carson Jones (34-8-2, 24 KO’s) in their fight on July 7th at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK.

Compared to the fodder that the 26-year-old Brook has been facing during his career, this is a huge jump up in competition.

It’s still not a big jump, but I’m not surprised. He’s been brought up slowly and I don’t expect Brook to take a real jump up in competition until he faces one of the champions, and then he’ll likely be in shock at how unprepared he is.

I see Brook having some problems against the 25-year-old Jones, mostly because Jones will be sporting a huge three inch reach advantage over the shorter-armed Brook. That’s a pretty big number, because Jones likes to use his reach and he could end up giving Brook a lot of trouble in this fight. Brook’s arms look to me like they belong on a different person. I mean, he’s got a long torso but then his arms are short in comparison.

The same thing with his legs. He’s got short legs and looks almost like a wrestler instead of a boxer. The short arms just don’t seem to go with his body, and that worries me for this fight. Jone might be able to just stand on the outside batting the shorter armed Brook away each time he tries to get close simply by holding his arms out and swatting Brook each time. Brook’s arms will be swinging at the air as if Jones is holding out his arm and letting Brook swing away and miss.

Ideally, what Brook needs to do is try to get in close as much as possible so that his limited reach doesn’t handicap him in this fight, but I just don’t think he can.