By Scott Gilfoid: While IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) was making a big deal about his 4th round stoppage win over #1 IBF challenger Jo Jo Dan (34-3, 18 KOs) tonight at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, Amir Khan called it “easy work” for Brook, which was a backhand compliment.
Khan knows what a lot of boxing fans know about the Brook-Dan fight, and that was it was a mismatch from the moment the contracts were signed. The IBF, with their upside down rankings, had Jo Jo Dan ranked #1 instead of #15. They even had Dan ranked above Khan, Tim Bradley, Diego Chaves and Devon Alexander, despite the fact that Dan had been beaten twice by Selcuk Aydin not long ago.
It was truly an upside down ranking, and for that reason it really wasn’t a big deal that Brook was able to defeat Dan. Brook merely did what anyone in the top 15 would have done had they been in the ring with the light hitting Dan.
”Well done, Kell! Nice to see you back in the ring #EasyWork,” Khan said on his twitter.
Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn made it clear after the fight that they want the Khan fight in the worst way, as both fighters called him out. However, Khan has already said that he won’t fight Brook until he starts fighting and beating big names.
Unfortunately I don’t think you can call Jo Jo Dan a big name. Brook might as well have fought Jo Jo Dan’s conqueror Selcuk Aydin rather than Dan, because at least he’d have faced the guy that twice beat Dan.
Dan isn’t a big name, and neither is Aydin. But if Brook is going to face the lower level guys, then he really doesn’t have any business trying to get a fight against Khan. He’s still too far away from having earned the fight.
To get the Khan fight, Brook needs to fight Keith Thurman, Tim Bradley, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse and Marcos Maidana. Fighting the soon to be 42-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez doesn’t count due to Marquez being too old and too past it.
Brook put Dan down on the canvas four times in the fight with two knockdowns coming in the 2nd and another two in the 4th. At least two of the knockdowns in the fight were questionable though. Brook knocked Dan down for the first time in the 2nd round after wrapping his left arm around his neck and then holding him with the arm while nailing him with a right uppercut to the head.
This occurred directly in front of the referee Earl Brown, who counted the knockdown as being legit rather than waiving it off. In the 4th, Dan tripped over Brook’s leg, causing Dan to fall on the canvas for the third knockdown of the fight.
The other knockdowns in the fight were legitimate. Brook knocked Dan down in the 2nd round with an overhand right to the head. It was more of a balance thing rather than Dan being hurt. In the 4th, Brook hit Dan with a left hook while he was trying to duck away from the action.
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