By Scott Gilfoid: We heard from Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn how Brook (30-0, 20 KO’s) was supposed to be fighting a quality opponent for his next fight on October 26th, but instead of Brook fighting a high quality opponent, Brook will be facing former WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Sanchenko (34-1, 23 KO’s) at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, UK.
Yes, Senchenko was technically the WBA 147 lb. champion for three years, but look who Senchenko beat in order to win the title – Yuriy Nuzhnenko. This is the same Nuzhnenko that Matthew Hatton easily beat in 2010 by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. I mean, look at the guys that Senchenko defended his WBA title against in 3 years: Motoki Sasaki, Charlie Navarro, Marco Antonio Avendano and Paulie Malignaggi, who whipped him last year in a 9th round stoppage.
If Hearn’s main argument for matching Brook against Senchenko is that he’s a former WBA welterweight champion then that’s a pretty poor one indeed, because Senchenko was the WBA champion in name alone. He wasn’t a guy that was in the same league as talents like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Devon Alexander or Keith Thurman. Had Senchenko fought any of those guys, he’d have likely been knocked out quick.
Brook has had a pretty easy ride to get to his current #1 IBF ranking, and it’s kind of sad that he’s still taking the easy path instead of stepping it up to test himself against Thurman or Marcos Maidana. Look at Brook’s last seven wins and that’ll tell you all you need to know about his easy ride to the top: Carson Jones, Hector David Saldivia, Carson Jones [again], Matthew Hatton, Luis Galarza, Rafael Jackiewicz and Lovemore Ndou. Where’s the quality, and why is Brook being matched so softly?
Senchenko, #12 IBF, #12 WBA, #14 WBC, is still ranked in the top 15 of the World rankings despite getting beaten by the light hitting Paulie Malignaggi. But I think Senchenko should be 2nd tier all the way at this point. He was getting beaten by a ring rusty Ricky Hatton last year in November when he was able to stop Hatton with a body shot in the 9th round. In Senchenko’s last fight, he beaten some journeyman fighter named Carlos Adan Jerez (37-16-3, 18 KO’s) by a 4th round TKO last August.
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