Kell Brook faces Frankie Gavin on May 30th on Sky Box Office in London, UK

By Boxing News - 04/10/2015 - Comments

gavin(Frankie Gavin seen here in this photo not looking too good against Leonard Bundu) By Scott Gilfoid: As expected, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) will be defending his IBF strap for the second time next month against #5 IBF Frankie Gavin (22-1, 13 KOs) on May 30th on Sky Box Office at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

It’s a no-brainer move by Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn from the Matchroom Sport stable because the 29-year-old southpaw Gavin is one of Hearn’s Matchroom stable fighters, and it’s a nice little in house stay busy fight. But unless Hearn does something with Gavin, I think he’ll wind up not being useful to him if he keeps losing.

Gavin already was beaten last year by 40-year-old Leonard Bundu. Last November, Gavin just narrowly avoided another loss in beating 2nd tier fighter Bradley Skeete by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision. I scored that fight as a win for Skeete, but it showed you how vulnerable Gavin is as a fighter. Unless Hearn puts Gavin in with Brook right now, I can easily see Gavin getting beaten eventually by one of the 2nd tier fighters that Hearn matches him against.

Gavin was supposed to be fighting South African fringe contender Chris van Heerden on May 9th, but that fight was canceled with Gavin being pulled out of it to take the much bigger money bout against Brook for his IBF strap.

What’s interesting is that the Brook vs. Gavin fight will be on Sky Box Office. It’s a fight card that boxing fans in the UK will have pay for. It’s unclear whether Brook-Gavin, which will headline the Sky Box Office card, is worth being PPV. I personally see it as another Brook vs. Jo Jo Dan type of fight, and I can’t imagine having to pay to see the fight. I mean, Gavin was just whipped by Bundu last year, and after that fight, Gavin had the controversial win over Skeete.

Based on those two fights, I don’t rate Gavin as a 1st tier fighter. I see him as just another one of the many 2nd tier guys without much punching power. Whether the British boxing fans will want to pay to see the Brook-Gavin fight is debatable. Also on the Brook-Gavin fight card is WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares making a defense of his title against Britain’s Kevin Mitchell, and IBF featherweight champ Evgeny Gradovich defending against Lee Selby.

The Anthony Joshua vs. Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson heavyweight fight has reportedly been pulled off the card and moved to replace the Gavin vs. Van Heerden fight on May 9th.

“I respect Frankie for stepping up, he has called for this fight for a long time and after he was given a final eliminator against Tim Bradley it made sense for him to take the challenge,” Brook said via Fightnews.com. “I feel like I’m unbeatable right now and Gavin isn’t going to be able to cope with my speed and power on fight night. The O2 is one of the best arenas in the world and it’s an honor to headline a card like this.”

I don’t know that Brook is unbeatable as he says he is. He sure looked beatable in his fight against Shawn Porter last year, and I had Brook losing that fight. Either way, it was a very, very close fight. It’s obviously not a good sign that Brook was struggling against a guy like Porter. I mean, if Brook can’t even beat Porter in a decisive way then I think that means that Brook isn’t unbeatable because the opposition gets much better as you go up the food chain. If Brook can’t even beat Porter without controversy, then what’s going to happen to Brook once he gets inside the ring against the likes of Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana and Amir Khan?

I see Brook losing to all of those guys? I’m not even going to bother mentioning Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao because I see those fighters as way above Brook in terms of talent, and I don’t see those as viable fights for Brook. Those guys aren’t going to fight an obscure guy like Brook in their career because there’s no upside to fighting him in the U.S. The only way it makes sense for them to fight Brook is if Hearn stops matching Brook against little known guys like Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin. But the thing is if Hearn stops putting Brook in with those type of fighters, I see Brook losing. That’s why it’s kind of a tough situation for Brook and Hearn. If they put him in tough, he probably loses and loses badly. If they keep him against the soft opposition, he wins but he doesn’t get the fights he wants against Mayweather, Pacquiao and Khan.

“These are the fights you want to be part of and are where I belong,” Gavin said via Fight News. “I’ve dreamt of a world title and I will be 100 per cent ready physically and mentally for Kell Brook. Of course it’s going to be tough but I believe Kell is beatable and I’ve always felt that I have got the skills and the team to cause an upset.”

Gavin says he belongs in fights against guys like Brook? I don’t know if I agree with that. I don’t see Gavin belonging with guys at Brook’s level. Indeed, I see Gavin belonging more to 2nd tier guys like Skeete. Heck, even Skeete beat Gavin in my view, I don’t even see Gavin being on the same level as Skeete. But I do see him clearly as a 2nd tier fighter and little more than that.

Hearn is really throwing a bone to Gavin by letting him get a title shot off the back of his loss to Bundu and controversial win over Skeete. It must feel like an early Christmas present for Gavin to be getting a world title shot after those performances. It kind of works in a backwards way. Gavin fights horribly in a loss to Bundu and a controversial win over Skeete, and he then gets a world title shot.



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