By Scott Gilfoid: It’s never a good idea to bring a fighter along against soft opposition for long period of time and then suddenly throw them in with a champion and expect positive results to occur. It’s garbage in garbage out. IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) will be defending his title on January 19th against #1 IBF Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) in the United States in a location that is still being worked out.

Brook is a classic example of a fighter that has been brought along at a glacial pace with utterly soft opposition, including his International Boxing Federation 147 lb eliminator bout that he fought last October against a fighter by the name of Hector David Saldivia.

Brook still hasn’t been tested apart from his fight against Carson Jones last July, and Brook failed that test as I’m concerned. He won a 12 majority decision in a fight that you either saw as a draw or an extremely narrow win for Brook. It wasn’t the type of fight where you declare victory and then move on as if the test was passed.

It was like getting a D in a class and then advancing to an even higher class when you still didn’t prove that you can cut in the lower class. Brook is going to be way out of his league when he steps inside the ring with Alexander, and there’s not much he can do about it other than take his beating, and learn from the loss.

Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn needs to get a clue after Brook gets totally dominated by Alexander by understanding that it’s not a good idea to match him so softly because he needs to learn how to fight talents like Alexander. Brook can’t learn how to beat the likes of Alexander by being matched up against Saldivia, Luis Galarza, Matthew Hatton, Rafal Jackiewicz and Lovemore N’dou. Those guys are fighters that Brook should have fought in the 1st year of his career, not into 8th year.