By Scott Gilfoid: It’s hard to believe that 8-year pro Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) will be facing his first real test of his career when he meets up with IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) on February 23rd at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
This is going to be a tough battle for the 26-year-old Brook because he’s not had anyone even close to being on the same talent level as Alexander, and when he was stepped up a little bit in facing Carson Jones earlier this year in July, Brook was fought to a standstill in winning a controversial 12 round majority decision in a fight where Brook was really lucky he wasn’t knocked out in.
Brook somehow got through that fight and then had an easy fight in his IBF welterweight eliminator bout against Hector David Saldivia in beating him by a 3rd round TKO last October. That fight seems to have given Brook a ton of confidence because of how easy it was. Unfortunately, Brook doesn’t seem to realize that Saldivia’s resume was padded with nothing with weak opposition and the probably deserved to be ranked no better than top 200.
Saldivia was just not a good fighter at all, and how he was ranked so highly by the IBF is a mystery to me because he looked like a god awful 3rd tier fighter. At any rate, Brook thinks he beat someone good, and he’s going to be a little overconfident because of it when he steps inside the ring on February 23rd in Detroit to meet up with Alexander.
Brook was supposed to be fighting Alexander in January but he hurt an ankle that caused the fight to be postponed until February 23rd.
Other than Carson Jones, Brook’s resume is just loaded with poor opposition and it’s just so sad that he never put in with better quality opposition until now.
Alexander has really improved since losing to Tim Bradley in January 2011. Alexander has won his last three fights against Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana and Randall Bailey. I personally think that all of those guys would beat Brook if given the chance.
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