By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn will be announcing the next fight for his guy IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) next Monday on January 19th for the 28-year-old Brook’s next fight in March against an opponent still to be determined.
The opponent for Brook is expected to be a soft job, as Brook is coming off of a knife injury that he sustained recently. Hearn isn’t going to likely match Brook up with anyone with a chance of beating him. However, Hearn was already talking about matching Brook soft even before he was injured in the knife attack, so there’s no real change either way.
You can expect a fringe level guy for Brook to face in March. I know Paulie Malignaggi’s name has been mentioned, but I doubt he’ll get the fight due to his price tag likely being too much for what Hearn will be willing to pay for the opponent. I expect to see someone from the bottom or near the bottom of the welterweight division, someone without much in the way of punching power.
Hearn was talking about wanting to get an opponent that the American boxing fans would recognize, but that’s not likely to happen. To get a name that the U.S fans would know would mean that Hearn would need to open up his wallet and come up with some decent cash for the fight, and I don’t see that happening.
I see them picking some obscure guy who previously was beaten by other fighters. I mean, it might be a fighter who previously fought for a world title, but what totally decimated in that fight. In other words, a soft job.
Brook’s fight will be taking place in his home area at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. I suppose this is pretty much the only place that Brook can draw well in the UK so it’s not all that surprising to see him being brought back there.
“People doubted Kell before he ripped the World title from Porter in America,” Hearn said. “The fact is that Kell is a special fighter and I believe he will go on to unify the 147 lbs division, it will be an emotional night for Kell and another big statement will be made.”
I wouldn’t characterize Brook’s win over Shawn Porter last August as a situation where Brook “ripped the world title from Porter.” It was more of a close decision with Brook winning a 12 round majority decision. A dominant performance, it was not by Brook. He did a lot of holding and it reminded me of watching Ricky Hatton’s fight against Kostya Tszyu years ago where Hatton wrestled Tszyu rather than fought him.
There was way too much holding by Brook in the Porter fight, and I thought Brook should have lost points in a major way. As it was, I had Porter winning the fight because he was the one actually trying to fight in the second half of the bout while Brook was mainly just holding each time Porter would get in close.
I somehow doubt that Brook will ever be able to unify the division like Hearn is talking about. In order for Brook to unify, he’ll need to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. That obviously isn’t going to happen because Brook lacks the hand speed, talent and experience to compete with either of those fighters.
Even if Brook held them all night long to keep them from throwing punches like he did with Porter, he’d still lose badly. Those guys are way, way out of Brook’s league in terms of talent. It would be an ugly fight with Brook holding nonstop, which is why I don’t see them wasting time fighting him. Brook has got to learn how to face the best without holding.
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