Cunningham: Kell Brook will have to fight Alexander in U.S

By Boxing News - 10/24/2012 - Comments

Image: Cunningham: Kell Brook will have to fight Alexander in U.SBy Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn’s dream of getting IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) over to the UK to fight his guy Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) isn’t going to be happening. Alexander’s trainer Kevin Cunningham shot that idea down straight away, saying it’s not going to happen.

Cunningham told Fighthype.com “The only way it happens [Brook-Alexander fight] is if it’s in the U.S, because there’s no how we will go overseas.”

There it is. I guess Hearn is going to have to live with it now because Cunningham has spoken and he speaks for his fighter 25-year-old Alexander. There goes any sliver of a chance that Brook ever had of winning the fight because he’s not going to stand a chance at beating Alexander in his home city of Saint Louis, Missouri. I hate to say it but the only way Brook can beat Alexander in Saint Louis is by KO, and that’s not going to happen because Alexander has an excellent chin.

Let’s pretend for a second that Brook actually did fight well enough to deserve a decision against Brook in Saint Louis. I don’t think Brook will win even under those circumstances. We saw how Lucas Matthysse and Andriy Kotelnik went home losers when they fought Alexander in his hometown despite fighting well enough to win. So, I don’t see Brook being any different. He’s not going to win this fight by a decision in my view, and he’s not going to KO Alexander.

Hearn needs to recognize that Brook will be taking a loss against Alexander if he chooses to fight him and perhaps decide it might not be such a good idea to take that fight. It’s too bad because Hearn made a major blunder by turning down a title shot for Brook against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley that would have put Brook on course for a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao had he beaten Bradley. But instead Hearn chose to take the fight against little known Hecto Saldivia to become the mandatory for the IBF 147 pound strap, which is now in the possession of Alexander.

Bradley would have been a winnable fight for Brook, but I can’t say the same thing about the Alexander fight. Brook won’t win that fight, not in the U.S, and then he’ll have nothing to show for all that hard work except a big fat loss. It’s too bad I wasn’t Brook’s promoter because I would have seen all these moves well head a time and chose not to waste time fighting Saldivia because it was painfully obvious that Alexander was going to beat Randall Bailey, and that would mean that Brook would then have to fight Alexander in Saint Louis if he wanted to try and win his IBF title.

Brook can’t beat Alexander over there, so Hearn really fixed Brook’s wagon real nice, didn’t he. Okay, there is a way out of this mess for Brook and Hearn and that’s by Brook opting not to take the fight with Alexander, and instead look to see if they can still set up the Bradley fight. It’s worth a try. Bradley will probably tell Brook and Hearn to get lost, but oh well it’s worth a try.



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