By Scott Gilfoid: British welterweight Kell Brook (28-0, 18 KO’s) made a retirement threat for tonight’s fight with tonight’s IBF welterweight eliminator bout against Hector Saldivia (41-2, 32 KO’s) at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Brook has been talking about hanging up the gloves if he gets spanked tonight by the unheralded 28-year-old Saldivia, promising retirement if he can’t get past this opponent onto his much coveted title shot against either Devon Alexander or Randall Bailey.

Brook said to Sky Sports News “That’s why I came out with that statement. There’s no way I’m losing, I’m 100 percent convinced that I’m going to take this kid apart and look good doing it.”

Yeah, just like Brook was supposed to have stopped Carson Jones. We all saw how good that one went, didn’t we. Jones had Brook stumbling around the ring like a person on a good night’s drunk and barely able to stand. That fight should be a do over as far as I’m concerned because Brook hardly won it. But Brook and his promoter were happy enough with the so called victory to move onto the Saldivia fight.

I don’t see how Brook can ever be an elite fighter if he can’t even beat the likes of Jones without controversy. Brook’s nose was bleeding like a faucet in that fight, and just looked like a tired fighter who didn’t belong out there.

Brook thinks he’s going to not only win tonight, but he sees himself knocking Saldivia out. I think Brook should be happy just trying to get a win because he’s not at the level where he can start predicting knockouts. Heck, he couldn’t even KO Matthew Hatton. Brook looked gassed in that fight by the 9th round.

I see Brook as basically a 6 to 8 round fighter still. He’s had so many soft fights during his career that he’s never been able to build up his stamina the way that normal fighters do, and he’s only now starting to see the negative affects of all that god awful match-making that was done for him early on. Sure, Brook has build up an unbeaten record and is fighting in an IBF eliminator, but it’s definitely hurt his career by stunting his his game. He should have been fighting the likes of Saldivia in his first year as a pro, not going into his 9th round. That’s just poor.