By William Mackay: Welterweight contender Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to take Brook to the next level in early 2012 against two top welterweights Mike Jones and Devon Alexander.

Former International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, now a fringe welterweight contender, is also someone that Hearn is interested in matching Brook against.

The chances of Brook getting a fight against Jones are very, very low to the point where it’s probably an impossibility. Jones fights for Top Rank Promotions and is being eyed as a future opponent for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. They’re not going to put him in with a good opponent that has a chance to beat him. I’m not sure that Brook can beat Jones, but just the same, Top Rank won’t likely take this fight due to the risk involved. For the most part, Jones has been fighting soft opposition for the past six years and that’s not likely to change anytime soon until Jones gets his title shot against Pacquiao.

Alexander is a possibility, although I would be surprised if he took the fight. Alexander has looked terrible in his last three fights against Andriy Kotelnik, Timothy Bradley and Lucas Matthysse. Alexander was beaten by Bradley, and won controversial decisions over Kotelnik and Matthysse while fighting at home in St Louis, Missouri.

Malignaggi could be a possibility, but he’s looking for a title shot and probably won’t want to take a risky fight that doesn’t pay him a lot of money. Malignaggi is facing C level opposition nowadays and is being pushed up the rankings by the sanctioning bodies. He doesn’t need to fight an actual contender to get a title shot and he probably won’t take the risk.

Brook defeated welterweight contender Rafal Jackiewicz by a 6th round stoppage last Saturday night in a one-sided fight from start to finish in which Jackiewicz, for some reason, failed to throw many punches.

Brook could be fighting on the Carl Froch vs. Andre Ward undercard on December 17th in the United States. With little time to go before that date, Brook’s opponent will likely be either a 2nd tier opponent for a bottom dweller in the welterweight and/or light welterweight division.