By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s first defense of his IBF strap will be taking place on March 28th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Brook’s opponent is expected to be announced this Thursday by his promoter Eddie Hearn.
There’s talk that it’ll be Brook’s #1 IBF mandatory challenger, the light hitting Jo Jo Dan (34-2, 18 KOs). That’s not much of a fight, because Dan can’t punch at all and he’s twice been beaten by Selcuk Aydin.
The fact that the International Boxing Federation has Jo Jo Dan ranked #1 with their organization tells you a great deal about the rankings by the IBF. It’s pretty mickey mouse as far as I’m concerned. I see Dan as a bottom 15 guy at best, and I’m talking about the very bottom.
Why the IBF has Dan ranked No.1 is anyone’s guess. I mean, they have the guy ranked above Tim Bradley, Shawn Porter, Robert Guerrero, Devon Alexander, Sadam Ali, Diego Chaves, and Amir Khan. I can’t see Dan even going the distance with any of those guys.
As such, Brook will have a nice soft job for his March 28th if Hearn picks out Dan to fight. However, if his idea is to make Brook a more popular fighter in the United States, then Dan is a horrible choice for Brook’s next fight, because Dan is a complete unknown in the U.S. Even if the Brook-Dan fight were to be piped into the U.S in order to increase Brook’s popularity, I don’t see it happening. It takes a recognizable opponent in order to increase someone like Brook’s popularity in a huge country like the U.S, and if they stick him with another complete unknown then they’re pretty much wasting their time.
“Last year was a year of incredible highs and lows and the bravery he has shown to come back from that life-threatening injury has been quite remarkable,” Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn said via Skysports.com. People doubted Kell before he ripped the world title from [Shawn] Porter in America. The fact is that Kell is a special fighter and I believe he will go on and unify the 147 pound division.”
Let’s be real about Brook’s win over Porter; a lot of boxing fans saw Brook losing to Porter, as did I. Brook clinched constantly and was outworked by Porter. There was nothing special about Brook’s performance in that fight, unless you like to see a lot of clinching.
It was more of an ugly clinch-filled performance by Brook in what appeared to be one big stall. He was stalling out a lot of the rounds by just blatant holding. I thought the referee should have taken points away from Brook by the 3rd round because he had a hold on Porter each time he would try and work inside. To me, that wasn’t boxing, but rather MMA fighting, and the referee was asleep at the wheel in letting it take place.
Brook was recently knifed while on vacation, and that’s what Hearn was talking about when he was remarking on Brook’s bravery.
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