By Scott Gilfoid: Well, I’m starting to wonder if former super middleweight title holder Carl Froch has gone over the deep end. He’s now saying that he sees IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) as the heir to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s throne. Froch thinks that the soon to be 30-year-old Brook can beat anyone in the welterweight division.
Froch also believes that Brook can beat all the same guys that Mayweather has beaten in his career. This means that Brook can beat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, Marcos Maidana, and Miguel Cotto. If Brook would stop fighting mediocre opposition, then maybe we could find out if he’s any good or not. A fight against Gennady Golovkin would be a good start for him. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been yapping about wanting to make that fight. If he throws a ton of cash at Golovkin and his promoters at K2 Promotions, I bet thst fight could get made. But somehow, I don’t think Hearn is at all serious about wanting to let Brook fight GGG.
The rest of the guys that Mayweather have fought in the last 10 years are either pretty much shot or no longer fighting. Even Maidana is no longer fighting. I can’t say I see Brook beating any of those guys, but that’s me.
“Now Floyd Mayweather has retired, I think Kell Brook is the best welterweight in the world,” said Froch to skysports.com. “I honestly think he can beat anyone that Floyd did before he called it a day. Look down that welterweight list – Kell is good enough to beat any of them. Kell Brook is the heir to the welterweight throne and can be the best in the world.”
Oh boy, Froch is dreaming if he thinks Brook is the replacement for Mayweather. No way do I see that as being reality. I mean, if the following welterweights weren’t around, then I would say Brook is the best: Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley, and Danny Garcia. Froch is really smothering Brook with compliments, isn’t he? He’s slathering him really good with the compliments.
I see all of those guys as being better than Brook. Yeah, I know Brook beat Porter two years ago in 2014, but that was a fight where Brook clinched nonstop and got away with it. He shouldn’t have.
Since then referee didn’t do his job by taking multiple points off from Brook in that fight, I see that as a tainted win for Brook. Besides that, Porter has since learned how to stop fighters that hug nonstop. If you want proof, look at Porter’s fight against Adrien Broner last June. Broner used Brook’s playbook by holding constantly all night long, and Porter was able to keep nailing him while being held. The referee had a really tough fight breaking up all the clinches that Broner did, but Porter clearly got the better of him despite being held all night long.
“There is no reason he can’t take over,” said Froch about Brook. “He is such an exciting fighter; he could beat anyone. Danny Garcia? Keith Thurman? Jessie Vargas? It doesn’t matter to me, these are the sort of fights we want, what Kell needs and ones I think he will win.”
Froch forgot to include Errol Spence Jr. He’s going to be Brook’s IBF mandatory challenger if he beats Chris Algieri next month on April 16. Once that happens, Brook will have exactly two more fights after his title defense against Kevin Bizier on Saturday. This means that Brook will almost definitely have to fight Spence in 2017 if he doesn’t vacate his IBF title, which I think he will in order to avoid an embarrassing loss to Spence.
Yeah, I don’t agree at all with Froch about him thinking Brook is the best welterweight. I think he’s maybe a top five or six type of fighter at best. There’s nothing ashamed of with that. Being top five or six isn’t bad. Unfortunately, with the welterweight division getting better and better, I don’t see Brook staying a top five guy. I think there’s going to be newer guys coming along that will soon crowd him out and take his spot.
I think a loss to Spence will be the first reality test for Brook. After he loses that belt, he’ll need to try and win another against someone like Jessie Vargas. That’s a winnable fight for Brook, but I’m not sure that Vargas’ promoter Bob Arum would let him take that fight. Brook might need to work his way to a title shot against him, which could take a year or two, maybe longer.
“The one thing he needs is a big, defining fight, then we will see just how good he is,” said Froch about Brook.
There’s no doubt about it that Brook needs a career defending fight, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. Vargas isn’t a career defining fight in my view. I see Vargas as the same fighter that Tim Bradley easily beast. I don’t think Brook is going to get a Bradley fight this year, but if he does, I see Bradley easily winning. He’s a more skilled guy and he’ll totally dominate a robotic fighter like Brook in m y view.
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