By Scott Gilfoid: No.1 WBO 147lb contender Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KO’s) saw IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter’s 4th round TKO win over Paulie Malignaggi last Saturday night. Brook says it was a good performance from Porter, but he thinks it’ll be a different story with him when he faces Porter. Malignaggi, 33, is clearly nearing the end of his career and not the fighter he once was. With the 27-year-old Brook, he’s still not yet cut his teeth on 1st tier opposition after 10 years as a pro.
Brook said this on his twitter about Porter’s performance: “Great performance @ShowtimeShawnP let’s see how you are with me! who is also a young lion! #AndTheNew.”
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says he wants Porter’s next fight to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s obviously bad news for Brook, as he was hoping to get the winner of the Porter-Malignaggi fight to travel to the UK to fight him in his hometown of Sheffield. It would have been possible if Malignaggi had won, as he’s someone that was always interested in maximizing the most revenue for each of his fights.
The money obviously would have been good for Malignaggi if he had fought Brook in the UK. However, Porter probably isn’t going to be open to fighting Brook in his own country, because he’s young and he doesn’t need to put himself into risky situations where he might need a knockout to win the fight. Carson Jones fought well enough to deserve a win against Brook in their first fight in the UK in 2012, and he ended up losing by a 12 round majority decision. I had Jones a clear winner in that fight, but it wasn’t surprising that he came out the loser.
Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn should probably reconsider the idea of Brook facing Porter for the IBF title, because Brook doesn’t look ready. His opposition has been so incredibly poor his entire career that it has kept him from developing the way that normal fighters do. Brook should have been fighting better quality opposition years ago, but instead he’s been put in with mostly record-padding opponents. To be sure, Brook has a 32-0 resume, but you really have to see him as a guy with a 0-0 record because he’s faced such poor opposition.
At this point someone like Julio Diaz would be a huge step up in class for Brook if he were to be matched against a guy like that. Brook isn’t going to get that fight, as he’ll likely be going straight into a title fight against Porter in his next fight. In other words, Brook will be going from facing an unknown fighter named Alvaro Robles, who he beat in his last fight, to facing one of the best fighters in the entire welterweight division in Porter.
I can already predict the outcome and it’s not likely to end well for Brook. I just hope that Hearn rebuilds Brook the right way by getting him to start fighting good opposition instead of the 3rd tier fighters he’s been fighting most of his career.
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