By Adam Mccoy: On May 30th Frankie Gavin (22-1 13KO) has been given a shot at the IBF welterweight title against current champion Kell Brook (34-0 23KO). Nobody quite knows how Gavin got the fight other than the fact they are both promoted by Eddie Hearn.
Although the fight appears to be a mismatch anything is possible in this sport as Badou Jack showed us on Friday when he defeated Anthony Dirrell in what was supposed to be a warm up fight before George Groves.
I don’t think anybody has looked at the bigger picture yet which leads to this article “What if Frankie Gavin wins?”
Let me remind you that after the Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Manny Pacquiao super fight on May 2nd the winner will hold 75% of the titles in the welterweight division. The money generated from that fight will likely smash every record in boxing history so a rematch makes perfect sense from a financial point of view. However if the fight is so one sided to the point a rematch makes no sense then other options must be explored. If this is the case the only other logical fight for either fighter would be to totally unify the division and capture the only title missing at 147lb.
Mayweather has stated that he only plans on fighting once more after May 2nd and although Freddie Roach has advised Manny retire if victorious, he may have other plans. Mayweather and Pacquiao are legends of the sport and coming close to retirement so the only thing on their minds is securing their legacy. Now let’s pretend Frankie Gavin pulls off the upset of all upsets and defeats Kell Brook, it may destroy Mayweather or Pacquiao’s ambitions of unifying the division before retirement.
Gavin is not even a household name in the UK and was beaten not long ago by Leonard Bundu and was even put down in the 6th round. A fight between Manny/Floyd vs Kell Brook is a great match-up and could make big PPV numbers due to Kell Brooks reputation of being a young hungry undefeated champion. Kell Brook is worthy of facing the winner of the May 2nd super fight. The perfect unification fight with the retiring legend facing the future star of the welterweight division with all titles on the line, this fight would be huge.
But Frankie Gavin has the chance to either ruin Mayweather or Manny’s retirement. They will either refuse to face him due to being unknown on the world scene and relatively unknown in the UK to the casual fans. Or if they insist on unifying the welterweight division it will create possibly the biggest mismatch in boxing history. I mean can you imagine a legend like Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao retiring with a win against Frankie Gavin. Kell Brook has it all to lose on May 30th and Gavin has it all to gain. This is a mismatch that should never have happened but unfortunately it has and we have Eddie Hearn to thank and even Kell to a degree for agreeing to it. Just because they couldn’t get the Khan fight doesn’t mean Gavin was the next best thing. Hearn said he wanted big fights for brook so I wonder why the fight wasn’t offered to the likes of Bradley, Keith Thurman, Brandon Rios, Juan Manuel Marquez or anyone along those lines.
We all know Brook will likely stop Gavin and stop him early but take a second to think of how a Frankie Gavin win could affect the welterweight division for the worst. Thank you for the read and I’ll be sure to take any feedback on board for next weeks article discussing the results of the Mayweather V Pacquiao super fight.
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