Kell Brook to fight Diego Chaves on October 24th in Sheffield

By Boxing News - 09/02/2015 - Comments

chaves444By Scott Gilfoid: Well, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) isn’t getting the big name that he was hoping to get for his next fight, but he at least will be fighting an actual contender with a shred of talent for a change when he faces #4 IBF, #9 WBA Diego Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) on October 24th in Sheffield, UK.

Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is expected to make the announcement of the Brook-Chaves fight this week.

Hearn and Brook had been hoping to get the better known Brandon Rios for the fight, but they failed to agree on the money and the rematch clause for the fight. However, Chaves is a better fighter than Rios in my opinion.

This could wind up being a lot tougher fight for Brook than what he would have experienced had he fought Rios. It’ll be interesting to see how this fight goes. I just hope that Brook doesn’t resort to clinching Chaves all night long to keep him from throwing punches like we saw in Brook’s fight against Shawn Porter.

To say that the 29-year-old Chaves is the best opponent that Brook has faced since his close clinch-filled victory over Shawn Porter last year in September 2014 is putting it lightly. After that one fight against Porter last year, Brook has reverted back to form in going back to facing fodder opposition in his last two fights against Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. Those are the type of guys that Brook has fought mostly during his 11-year pro career.

When you look at Brook’s resume of 35 wins, he really has that one fight against Porter as his lone talented opponent on his 11-year resume. It’s pretty shocking and very, very confusing to see a fighter with as many wins as Brook with such dreadful opposition on his resume.

“The negotiation was closed a few days ago,” said Chaves via RingTV.com. “I was already training quite hard, and then this offer came up to fight for a world title. He’s not a fast fighter. He is easily bothered by body punches, and that is one of our strengths.”

Chaves’ record of 1-2-1 in his last four fights is pretty horrible, I must say. Chaves was beaten by Brandon Rios and Keith Thurman, held to a draw by Tim Bradley and beat someone named Juan Alberto Godoy.

In fairness to Chaves, he appeared to have been robbed of a victory in the Rios fight, because he was dominating that fight at the time the referee Vic Drakulich jumped in and inexplicably stopped the fight in the 9th round and disqualified Chaves for throwing an elbow that I never saw him throw. The stoppage saved Rios from losing the fight because he was behind in the 10 round scheduled fight and struggling with Chaves’ superior punching power.

Brook, 29, is clearly not fast of hand. He’s a slower welterweight with a mechanical fighting style. He pretty much gets by completely with his punching power. He can punch, but he’s not a puncher in the league of someone like Keith Thurman or Marcos Maidana. Those are better punchers than Brook in my view, and with superior athleticism. Brook is just a guy with a padded record in my view, who was able to beat a superior fighter than him in Shawn Porter by grabbing him all night long each time he got in close to throw punches.

With the referee working the fight not doing anything about Brook’s constant clinching, he was able to nullify Porter’s offense by keeping him bottled up and unable to throw punches due to him being held. Porter has since learned how to defeat clinchers like Brook by fighting through the clinches on the inside and continuing to throw punches nonstop.

We saw how Porter had improved in his last fight in June, when Adrien Broner attempted to clinch Porter nonstop like Brook had done. Instead of giving up and waiting for the referee to separate them each time he was held by Broner, Porter simply kept throwing punches even with Broner holding him like a little wrestler. Porter was able to get an arm loose from Broner’s vice-like clinches, and then pound him with that free arm.

“We know he is a tough fighter, very technical,” said Chaves. I believe he has problems going backwards. We saw that in his fight against Shawn Porter. When Porter charged forward, Brook had trouble adjusting to that. We are going to test his punching power too.”

When Brook went backwards in the Porter fight, he looked clumsy and not particularly coordinated. Brook appeared unsure of himself when he was being packed up by Porter, because he obviously has been rarely backed up during his career due to the weak opposition he’s been matched against. The only thing that Brook could do when backed up was to instinctively grab Porter in a clinch to keep him from throwing his punches. It was a routine that was all night long and it was so dull to watch.

In terms of punching power, I rate Chaves as being just as good a puncher as Brook, if not a tiny bit better. Chaves is a really good puncher, and he does well against guys that stand in front of him in the pocket looking to slug. Chaves struggles when he fights guys that move a lot like Thurman did in his fight against him, and against guys that fight on the inside a lot. Brook isn’t a mover and he has poor inside fighting skills. Brook’s idea of fighting on the inside if the clinch unfortunately.

If Brook chooses to fight stand in the pocket and fight Chaves in a traditional battle, it could be a very good fight. I think Chaves will have an excellent shot at winning this fight if Brook doesn’t resort to grabbing all night long to keep him from getting his shots off. But I think once Brook tastes Chaves’ punching power, we’re likely to see a whole bunch of clinches from Brook. I just hope the referee is on his J-O-B and ready to take points off for the excessive clinching from Brook.

Here are Brook’s opponents in his last 10 fights:

Frankie Gavin

Jo Jo Dan

Shawn Porter

Alvaro Robles

Vyacheslav Senchenko

Carson Jones

Hector David Saldivia

Luis Galarza

Carson Jones

Matthew Hatton



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