Kell Brook vs. Brandon Rios fight expected to be announced next week

By Boxing News - 06/17/2015 - Comments

brook676By Scott Gilfoid: Bob Arum, the promoter for #4 WBO Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs), says a fight between Rios and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) is close to being made. Arum says the fight could be announced by next week for the O2 Arena in London, UK.

The date that Brook has been talking about for the fight is September 12th, which is the same date that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting on. I think that’s a terrible date if it holds true because the Rios-Brook fight would be competing with the Mayweather fight.

The Rios vs. Brook fight would obviously be televised on HBO, and it would bring in poor ratings if it comes on at the same time as the Mayweather fight. It would obviously be on regular HBO and not PPV, but still we’re talking dreadful ratings if that’s what Arum plans on doing. I think HBO would be wise if they told Arum that they’re not going to try and compete with Mayweather’s fight on the same date, because no one will bother watching the Rios vs. Brook fight.

I mean, it’s going to be tough to get fans to watch the fight anyway because Brook is a complete unknown in the U.S. Arum might as well have picked out anybody for Rios to fight on September 12th because the ratings would be able to same. No one will care because few people have heard of Brook, and they won’t give a fig that the IBF strap is on the line.

The titles have been so devalued nowadays due to the emergence of tons of sanctioning bodies, all with their own straps and some of them like the WBA with multiple titles. It means nothing to be a champion nowadays. It only time it means anything is if the champion holds three or more world titles at the same time like Mayweather and Wladimir Klitschko.

“I’m optimistic that it could be announced by early next week,” Arum said via Fighthype. “We’re getting very, very close to announcing that fight. It’s a big showcase. It would be at the O2 in London, and a huge crowd. It would be on pay-per-view in England. It would be a major, major bout. I give Brandon a hell of a shot. Kell Brook is a tremendous fighter, but even if Brandon lost the fight, he’s getting a big payday and he’s covering himself in glory,” Arum said.

I hope for Rios’ sake that there’s a good referee that works the fight, because if Brook chooses to clinch all night long like he did against Shawn Porter last year, Rios is going to need a good referee to help peel Brook off of him and start taking points off of him for his excessive holding.

Rios is going to need to work a great deal on how to prevent Brook’s holding. If he elects to clinch 10+ times per round like he was doing against Porter, Rios is going to have a difficult time getting his offense in gear. All that awful clinching that Brook did in the Porter fight should have resulted in Brook getting disqualified, but the referee that worked the fight just let it go on without taking points away.



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