By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for welterweight contender Kell Brook (25-0, 17 KO’s), sees him fighting for a world title at the end of March 2012 next year. Hearn isn’t saying who the champion will be other than saying it’s going to be a popular fighter.

Here’s what Hearn said on Sky Sports Ringside: “We’re looking at the end of March in the Sheffield arena. It will be a huge, huge name.”

I don’t know why but I think the big name that Hearn is speaking of will be WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko. Some big name, eh? But Hearn can’t be talking about IBF welterweight champion Andre Berto, who also I wouldn’t consider a big name. I wouldn’t blame Hearn for not being aware of who’s popular or who’s not in the United States, since he’s from England. But let me be the one to break the news to Hearn if he considers Berto as a huge name, he’s not a huge name in the U.S. I know HBO has been working hard in trying to make a star of Berto put putting all his mismatch fights on their network, but Berto has failed to pick up a large backing of fans despite HBO cramming him down our throats. It’s kind of like having only a couple of channels to watch and nothing really on. Just because there isn’t anything to watch that doesn’t mean that you grow addicted to seeing the stuff that’s being put in front of you. If Hearn is talking about Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao, then I can understand him saying that Brook will be fighting a big name. But Berto? Nope, that’s not a big, big name, at least not yet.

If Hearn matches Brook against Berto then I feel sorry for Hearn because Brook will get taken out easily. Berto may not be a huge star yet, but he’s certainly a lot better than Brook. Berto would likely have made easy work of a guy like Brook even when he was first starting out. Berto just has much better hand speed and power than Brook, and I think Hearn will be really sorry if makes the mistake of putting the slow-handed Brook in with Berto.

I think Brook can possibly beat Senchenko, but even that would be a big ask because Senchenko is tall and has a great jab. He’ll make Brook miserable. Brook has been softly matched for so long that he’s still not had a quality opponent after eight long years. Putting him in with Senchenko would be a really bad idea in my estimation. Hearn needs to slowly move Brook up if he doesn’t want the guy knocked out.