By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night on May 30th, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) will be fighting what amounts to be little more than a stay busy fight for him in his title defense against #5 IBF Frankie Gavin (22-1, 13 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Gavin, 29, is technically a highly ranked contender at #4 by the International Boxing Federation, but he’s really been given a very generous ranking by the IBF. It’s a ranking that makes little sense when you factor in that Gavin was recently beaten by Leonard Bundu and arguably beaten by Bradley Skeete.
Brook is pretty much fighting a guy who has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights in fighting Gavin. The guys that Gavin beat legitimately recently are obscure guys named Bogdan Mitic and Mate Hornyak. Those aren’t exactly the type of opposition that you like to see a contender fighting right before they get a world title shot, is it?
You can make an argument that the sole reason that Gavin is getting a world title shot against Brook is because they share the same promoter in Eddie Hearn. It also helps that Gavin isn’t much of a threat to beating Brook. Its match-ups like this that makes it easy for guys like Amir Khan to turn down a fight against Brook because it’s another mismatch for Brook, and another lesser opponent. Instead of fighting guys like Gavin, Brook should be fighting the likes of Marcos Maidana and Keith Thurman. That’s not happening though and you have to ask why. Does Hearn have confidence in Brook or what?
“I know that Frankie always performs better when the pressure’s not on him and he’s up against it,” Brook said via the Telegraph.co.uk. “We’ve seen him in the amateurs winning the world title. I think we’re going to see the best of Gavin. It should be a good fight. He’s got a lot to prove.”
It would have been nice if Gavin had actually proven himself before getting the world title fight. Losing to Bundu showed pretty clearly that Gavin doesn’t rate this title shot. Gavin’s fights against Skeete and Curtis Woodhouse also showed that he’s really not ready for the big time in my view. I had Gavin losing both of those fights. If Gavin had beaten Bundu and defeated Woodhouse and Skeete without controversy, I still wouldn’t see Gavin as deserving a world title shot, but it would definitely help. I mean, you’ve got be able to beat those type of fighters if you want to be fighting for a world title, yet here Gavin is being given a world title shot based on wins over largely fluff opponents.
“I haven’t been overly impressed. If he turns up like he has done for his last few fights, he won’t last very long with me. Time will tell,” Brook said.
I don’t know if Brook will be able to KO Gavin, but I do see this fight as being one-sided from start to finish just like it was when Bundu beat Gavin. I just hope that if Gavin hits the deck, he won’t spit out the mouthpiece like he did in the Bundu fight and get away with it without a point being taken off. I still can’t believe the referee in that fight didn’t take a point off from Gavin for spitting out his mouthpiece after he was dropped.
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