Kell Brook faces Matthew Hatton in domestic level scrap on March 17th

By Boxing News - 01/11/2012 - Comments

Image: Kell Brook faces Matthew Hatton in domestic level scrap on March 17th(Photo credit: Matchroom Sport) By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook (26-0, 18 KO’s) faces Matthew Hatton (42-5-2, 16 KO’s) in a domestic level fight on March 17th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire. This isn’t the big named quality opponent that was promised for Brook. That’s what blows me away. Brook was supposed to be facing a superb fighter, and look what we get: Hatton. I mean, Hatton is a decent gatekeeper type welterweight but he’s not anywhere close to being an excellent fighter. This is just another fodder opponent for Brook to look good against.

Indeed, Hatton, the brother of former two division world champion Ricky Hatton, is arguably a step down from Brook’s last two fights against Luis Galarza and Rafal Jaciewicz. The difference here is that Matthew Hatton is a big name in the UK and that will give Brook a nice little payday if nothing else.

Hatton doesn’t have the power or the speed to win this fight, so it’s just Brook facing the brother of a famous guy. Hatton has some decent wins over fringe contenders like Gianluca Branco and Yuriy Nuzhnenko, but that’s about as far it goes.

Hatton has faced one fighter in his entire career that I would consider good and that’s Saul Alvarez, who beat Hatton by a 12 round unanimous decision last year by the scores of 119-108, 119-108 and 119-108. Those are pretty lopsided scores and it really doesn’t give you a clear picture of how truly ones-sided the fight was.

Hatton just took shots, looked slow and did little more than that. The HBO analysts kept talking about the courage he was showing but it looked as if they were trying to distract from the mismatch that boxing fans were seeing. It was a horrible, horrible fight to watch because Alvarez was tagging Hatton at will without anything coming back.

So, Brook has picked another weak one and continues to put off facing a real test almost like someone putting off a scary dentist appointment. Brook has to fight a quality fighter sooner or later and he’s only making it harder on himself by still facing Hatton-level fighters after eight years as pro. Yes, eight years. Brook is like the British version of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. with all the B level fighters he’s faced and I really don’t want to see this guy win one of the world title belts because I’m afraid he’ll milk that baby like Felix Sturm milking his WBA middleweight title.

As far as the fight goes, it’s going to be a mismatch. Hatton will be a punching again and just take punishment for 12 rounds, and afterwards Brook will smile, as if he accomplished something. I think Brook isn’t in the class of some of the other welterweights in the division like Victor Ortiz, Andre Berto and Mike Jones. And of course, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are both worlds better than Brook. I see Brook like around 8 or 9 in the division. But he’ll do well against Hatton in this fight.



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