If Kell Brook beats Rios, he could get Pacquiao fight, says Ingle

By Boxing News - 06/10/2015 - Comments

brook54566By Scott Gilfoid: Dominic Ingle, the trainer for unbeaten IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs), believes that if the 29-year-old Brook defeated Top Rank fighter Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs), then Brook could possibly be facing former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao in a fight in 2016.

The Brook-Rios fight would setup a big money fight for Brook against Pacquiao, as long as the Filipino fighter recovers from shoulder surgery that he had performed last May.

I think Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn are really underestimating how good Rios is. Brook doesn’t have the kind of talent to make Rios look silly like Manny Pacquiao did. Brook will have to get in the trenches and beat Rios at his own game by slugging with him if he wants to get a victory over him, and that’ll prove to be difficult unless Brook resorts to clinching 24/7 like he did against Shawn Porter. That was really ugly to watch. Brook tying up Porter each time he got near him, and the referee just letting it go on without warning or taking points off from Brook for his incessant holding. Unless Brook holds Rios 10+ times per round, I see the Brook-Rios fight as a real tossup fight.

Getting the Brook-Rios fight negotiated may prove to be difficult if not impossible because Rios is a fairly big name in the United States, and he’s not going to play the part of a lowly B-side fighter in the negotiations with Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport. Rios is making good money for his fights nowadays with him getting over $1 million, and he’s not likely to accept chickenfeed so that he can play the part of an opponent for Brook in a fight that would likely take place in the UK.

There have been reports that Rios is asking for too much money for the fight. Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia says that Brook’s management have told them that he can’t use his MX Everlast gloves for the fight, and he’s not happy at all with this. Garcia believes that Brook is trying to play the part of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in trying to call the shots against Rios.

That obviously won’t work because Rios is too big of a name to be bossed around by Brook, a fighter who has no fan base to speak of in the United States. Brook is basically just a strap holder at welterweight, and not someone who is recognized as being the best of the welterweight champions, or even close to being the best.

“The motivation would certainly be there if the Brandon Rios fight goes ahead,” Ingle said via thestar.co.uk. “Who wouldn’t be up for that? It could be that if he wins that then a Manny Pacquiao fight would be attached, as the same promoter (Bob Arum) looks after both those fighters.”

Arum has already said that he’s interested in matching Pacquiao with Brook in 2016. The only thing that might change Arum’s mind is if Mayweather decides to fight Pacquiao for a second time. In that case, Brook will have to wait for the outcome of that fight, and hope that Pacquiao will want to fight him on the back of another loss to Mayweather.



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