By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) put himself in position tonight to fight for the IBF welterweight title by defeating Hector Saldivia (41-3, 32 KO’s) in a 3rd round stoppage at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Brook said afterwards “We’ve been hitting the numbers and when we go for the world title, we will carry on where we have left off. I am ready to turn into a machine.”

This is actually kind of funny because Brook is assuming that he’ll be able to do the same things that he did with Saldivia to Devon Alexander or Randall Bailey. I don’t see how Brook can do that, because Saldivia was a special case. It’s painfully obvious that Saldivia was a step down for Brook not only from Carson Jones, but also Matthew Hatton, Luis Galarza, Rafal Jackiewicz, and Lovemore N’dou. I would pick Hatton, Galzarza, Jackiewicz and N’dou over Saldivia any day of the week no problem.

It’s just another easy fight for Brook. It was his dumb luck that the IBF ranked Saldivia high enough for Brook to fight him instead of Mike Jones and Devon Alexander, who both would have likely wrecked Brook’s world tonight. Having Saldivia as an opponent instead of one of those guys was like an early Christmas present for Brook, because Saldivia should have already been weeded out of the top 15 rankings two years ago when he was blown out in the 1st round by Said Ouali, who just happens to be the only halfway decent fighter that Saldivia had ever faced.

That’s the bad thing about the sanctioning bodies. They rank these fighters really high without requiring that they have to fight quality opposition first. As such, we get fighters with inflated rankings who get fight a lick and get blown out in one round or in this case three rounds.

I hate to be the one to drizzle all over Brook’s parade but he’s not going to become any kind of machine like he’s talking about, not unless his promoter Eddie Hearn keeps digging up guys like Saldivia over and over. But the soft competition is over for Brook at least for his next fight. He has to face Alexander or Bailey, and those guys are going to whip the brakes off of Brook. They’re going to show why it’s not a good idea to have a fighter brought up like Brook has with nothing but soft competition. Brook won’t be ready for it and he’ll get spanked.