Kell Brook rated #1 in Ring Magazine rankings

By Boxing News - 06/29/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Ring Magazine has IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) rated as their No.1 fighter at 147. This is pretty impressive given that the 30-year-old Brook has arguably only fought one good opponent in his entire 12-year pro career in Shawn Porter from two years ago in 2014.

If Brook retires now, he can go out on a high note knowing that he was rated as Ring’s top #1 welterweight. It would be Brook’s 15 minutes of fame. However, I’m not sure if I agree with the Ring’s ratings, because I tend to rate fighters based on a combination of talent and experience rather than a single victory they won two years ago. Frankly, I see Brook lacking in the talent department compared to several other fighters that I rate above him like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

Brook will be facing WBO 147lb champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) in a unification fight in September at a still to be determined official date. Brook says he wants to unify all the titles at welterweight. Whether he can accomplish that is anyone’s guess.

I think Brook is rated a tad bit high in the Ring’s rankings. I mean, I think it’s swell that Brook is rated so highly in the Ring Magazine’s ratings, but since I don’t agree with them, I’ll tune them out and focus on my own ratings.

Here are the Ring welterweight Ratings:

1. Kell Brook

2. Keith Thurman

3. Amir Khan

4. Shawn Porter

5. Tim Bradley

6. Danny Garcia

7. Errol Spence

8. Jessie Vargas

9. Konstantin Ponomarev

10. Frankie Gomez

I definitely don’t agree with Brook at the top. Sorry, but beating Shawn Porter by using a gimmick of nonstop holding in their fight from 2014 isn’t enough for me to rate Brook at the top of the welterweight later. With that win being Brook’s only victory over a credible opponent in his 12-year pro career, I don’t see him as having done nearly enough to rate the top spot.

Khan’s No.3 makes zero sense considering the fact that he’s only one good opponent since 2012, and that was Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who obliterated him in six rounds last May. Khan was beaten in back to back fights by Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson in 2012 and 2012. Since those two fights, Khan has been fighting fodder up until he was wiped out by Canelo.

Here are Gilfoid’s top 10 welterweight ratings:

1. Errol Spence

2. Keith Thurman

3. Shawn Porter

4. Kell Brook

5. Danny Garcia

6. Tim Bradley

7. Frankie Gomez

8. Jessie Vargas

9. Amir Khan

10. Andre Berto

I believe that Spence is the top No.1 welterweight division right now because he looks the best out of all the fighters in the division. I’m willing to ignore the fact that the 26-year-old Spence has fought only one decent opponent in Chris Algieri.

I can ignore Spence’s lack of experience because he looks so much better than the other welterweights right now that it’s not even funny. The distance between Spence and Thurman is a galaxy away in terms of talent. Spence just looks way better than Thurman, and I can’t ignore that to have a lesser fighter on top of the talented 2012 Olympian.

I’ll have to readjust my welterweight rankings if Brook can prove that he’s the top dog by beating Spence, Thurman and Porter – without holding 24/7 – in the future. Until Brook accomplishes those tasks, I’ll have to rank him at No.4 in my rankings.