By Scott Gilfoid: Waiting for welterweight contender to finally step it up against the creme of the welterweight division has been a long process, as Brook has been on the slow path to the top his entire seven year pro career.

On October 8th, the 25-year-old Brook fights the 34-year-old #5 IBF, #14 WBO ranked contender Rafal Jackiewicz (38-9-1, 19 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK.

For the #2 World Boxing Organization (WBO) ranked Brook, one would hope that that this fight will be the start of Brook finally starting to fight some halfway decent fighters instead of the local fodder that he’s been fighting for most of his career.

I’m not so sure. I can see Brook going backwards after this fight, especially if he struggles to beat Jackiewicz, which is why I think will happen. This won’t be an easy fight for Brook, and he’ll show the limits of his talent in taking a lot of punishment from the Polish fighter. We’ll get to see how Brook will do when he does face someone of quality and it won’t be pretty.

The problem I see here is that Brook isn’t particularly powerful or fast, and he’s easy to hit with shots. Yes, he might beat a guy like Jackiewicz, who I personally see as the number #15 fighter in the welterweight division and nowhere near the current number #5 spot which the International Boxing Federation has him ranked.

But when Brook gets past this fight he’ll run into huge problems and take beatings but like I said, I think Brook will go backwards after this fight instead of forwards. He’ll keep getting spoon-fed until he gets his title shot and then get blasted out by a much more talented fighter than him. then it’s back to the old drawing board where the spoon feeding begins again.