Kell Brook – Brandon Rios in the works for August 8th on HBO

By Boxing News - 05/23/2015 - Comments

chaves335567By Dan Ambrose: IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) may not be getting the big money fight against Amir Khan that he’s been interested in for the last couple of years, but it looks like Brook will get a fight against Top Rank fighter Brandon Rios (33-2, 24 KOs) this summer.

Cameron Dunkin, the manager for Rios, told USA Today that a fight between Rios and Brook is possible for August 8th. It would be televised on HBO. There’s no word yet about where the fight would take place.

Given that Rios is one of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s most valuable fighters in his stable, he may not be excited at the prospects of letting Rios fight in the UK. While the fight would likely make more money in the UK due to the huge crowds that would turn up to see it, Rios would be at a disadvantage. He’s someone who fights on adrenalin and he might not do well if Brook is the one getting all the applause all night long.

Brook has to win his next fight against #5 IBF Frankie Gavin on May 30th in their fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Brook is expected to easily beat Gavin. It’s a fight that is seen about as non-competitive type of fight along the same lines as the Brook vs. Jo Jo Dan fight that took place earlier this year. Gavin is with the same promoter as Brook, and that would seem like the main reason that fight is taking place.

Eddie Hearn, the promoter for Brook, has been interested in putting Brook in with Rios ever since he captured the IBF welterweight title last year against Shawn Porter. Hearn feels that a victory over Rios will establish Brook as a star in the United States. It’s not clear if it’ll work that way though. Beating Rios doesn’t translate into star power in the U.S.

If it were that way, Mike Alvarado would have been a huge star for his win over Rios in 2013 in their second fight. In truth, beating Rios will only mean that Brook is good enough to beat one of the fringe welterweight contenders. If Hearn wants to turn Brook into a star, then he’s going to need to put him in with Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana, Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan, Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao. If Brook can beat fighters like this, he’d go along ways to becoming a star in America. But defeating Rios won’t do the job because Rios isn’t seen as a top guy at 147.

Rios has a two-fight winning streak going since his loss to Pacquiao in 2013. Rios has wins over Diego Chaves and Alvarado in his last two fights. Alvarado looked like a shot fighter in his recent loss to Rios. It’s hard to get excited about the outcome of the Alvarado-Rios 3 fight due to how poor Alvarado looked.

In Rios’ fight against Chaves last year, Rios had a lot of problems in that fight with Chaves’ punching power. It’s quite possible that Rios would have lost that fight if not for the work of referee Vic Drakulitch, who disqualified Chaves for throwing a phantom elbow in the 9th. The disqualification came just in time for Rios because there was only round left and he was about to lose by a 10 round decision.



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