By Scott Gilfoid: #3 WBO Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) says he’s still willing to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) in the future if the two of them win their next fights. Rios faces WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) on November 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brook will be fighting #4 IBF Diego Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) on October 24th at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.
Rios and Brook were in negotiations for a fight that would have taken place this month on September 12th, but the fight negotiations fell through after Brook asked for a rematch clause.
Rios says if he beats Bradley, then Brook will need to come to him instead of him coming over to the UK to fight him like he was willing to do before. Not only will Brook need to come to the U.S to face him, but he’ll also need to take a pay cut from the money that he would have gotten.
“I’d be open to it but they got to come to me now,” Rios said via Fighthype about Brook needing to come to the U.S. “I was willing to go to him and take a pay cut and fight him in his backyard. If I come out victorious (against Bradley) he can come to me and he can take the pay cut now, and if he don’t, ok, we move on.”
I think it’s safe to say that Brook won’t bother coming to Rios even if he wins three of the four welterweight titles in the division. Brook has a good thing going right now with him getting easy paydays over in the UK fighting in Sheffield. Brook is milking his IBF title facing guys like Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin and now Diego Chaves.
While some boxing fans are excited about the thought of Brook fighting Chaves, we are talking about a fighter with a record of 1-2-1 in his last four fights. This isn’t much of an upgrade from Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. To be sure, Chaves is an upgrade from those guys, but we’re not talking about a big one.
Brook is likely going to stay in the UK and keep fighting the weaker opponents. The International Boxing Federation is making it easy for Brook to milk his IBF title due to their rankings. Yeah, they have a talented fighter in Shawn Porter ranked in the top 15, but he’s way near the bottom at No.10. Rios is No.14. The rest of the contenders are weak in the IBF’s top 15.
Here’s the IBF’s top 15 rating:
1. NOT RATED
2. NOT RATED
3. Sadam Ali
4. Diego Chaves
5. Kevin Bizier
6. Fredrick Lawson
7. Chris Van Heerden
8. Konstantin Ponomarev
9. Rico Muller
10. Shawn Porter
11. Devon Alexander
12. Jeff Horn
13. Dan Ion
14. Brandon Rios
15. Frankie Gavin
“I hope Diego Chaves [expletive] him [Brook] up,” Rios said. ” I hope Diego Chaves kicks his a**, because Kell Brook’s a [expletive]. He didn’t want to fight me.”
Rios went on to say that Brook said that he couldn’t use a specific pair of gloves that he was interested in wearing, and he of course also said that Brook wanted a rematch clause. Rios says Brook can continue to fight guys like Frankie Gavin.
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