Brook won’t give Jones a rematch; instead they want Saldivia or a straight title shot

By Boxing News - 07/08/2012 - Comments

Image: Brook won't give Jones a rematch; instead they want Saldivia or a straight title shotBy Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn said that they won’t be giving Carson Jones (34-9-2, 24 KO’s) a rematch after beating him by a close 12 round majority decision last Saturday night in Sheffield. Instead of facing Jones ago, Hearn wants Brook to fight #5 IBF 147 pound contender Hector Saldivia (41-2, 32 KO’s) from Argentina if Hearn can’t get Brook a title shot straight away.

So, in other words, Hearn is looking to put Brook in with a weaker opponent than Jones, because the 28-year-old Salidvia is ranked below Jones and isn’t ranked by any of the other sanctioning bodies in the top 15 aside from the International Boxing Federation.

Hearn said “We’re going to try and make a title fight. If we don’t get that, we’ll try to fight Hector Saldivia to become the mandatory for the IBF. I’d like him to fight Hector Saldivia. We’ve got a lot of things to work on.”

You’re telling me Brook has got a lot of things to work on. I like how they’re now blaming his poor performance on conditioning and dieting problems during training camp. No, I’m sorry I don’t buy that. The reason why Brook looked so terrible is because he’s been shielded from quality opposition for so long and he’s not used to guys fighting back like Jones did. The 3rd tier guys that Brook has been brought up with have just caved in almost immediately and weren’t able to test his chin or his heart the way that Jones did.

This is basically just another soft fight for Brook so that he doesn’t get beat before he gets a title shot. I don’t see why they’re even bothering, because we saw pretty clearly that Book doesn’t have the talent to beat a top level fighter like Randall Bailey or Devon Alexander. Obviously, it’s likely going to be Alexander, and he’s going to whip Brook badly. It won’t even be a fight. Why bother facing Saldivia? If the idea is to try and improve Brook, which I don’t think you really can, Hearn should put him back in with Jones so that Brook can prove that he can beat him without controversy. I had Jones winning the fight. At worst, I could see it being a draw but hardly a victory for Brook. He really got exposed by Jones, and took an enormous beating from him in the 12th. I still don’t understand why the referee stopped the action in the last 15 seconds to give Jones a warning. The referee wasted 5 seconds on that warning when Brook was out on his feet. I really hated the timing, because it came right when Brook was about to go. It kind of reminded me of when Ricky Hatton was badly hurt by Juan Lazcano and the British referee stopped the action while Hatton was still badly hurt and let him have his shoes tied.

Saldivia has fought one decent fighter – Said Ouali – during his 8-year pro career and he was knocked out in the 1st round by him in 2010. I guess that’s why Saldivia isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBA, WBC or WBO. In my view, he’s a definite step down from Jones.

Brook can fight this Saldivia guy and probably beat him – I say probably because you can’t guarantee a victory for Brook over anyone at this point – but what difference does it make? Brook is still going to be knocked cold by IBF welterweight champion Randall Bailey if and when he fights him, and Devon Alexander is a much better fighter than Brook as well. Can you picture Bailey teeing off on Brook the way that Jones was last night? Brook would have been knocked out in the first few rounds. He doesn’t have the long reach that Mike Jones has, and it would be too easy for Bailey to KO Brook with a single shot.



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