By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten IBF mandatory challenger Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) says he’s eager to get in the ring to fight IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) in their fight on January 19th in the United States.

Brook, who’s been brought along at a glacial pace with his career, thinks he can rise to the occasion and beat Alexander and then take his International Boxing Federation 147 pound title back to the UK so he can show it off. That’s probably not going to happen, but it makes for a good goal for Brook to have.

Brook said to Sky Sports News “Nothings going to stop me. I can’t wait to get in that ring, in America, and get that world title.”

Brook is going to be in deep in this fight, and I can’t see it going well for him at all. Brook lucked out in his fight against American Carson Jones last July. Brook was out on his feet, staggering around after taking a number of hard shots from Jones. However, the referee stepped in and gave Jones a long warming during this time and it ate up crucial seconds that Jones could have used to finish Brook off to get a KO win.

I don’t see that happening on January 19th if Alexander has Brook out on his feet. You only get lucky once and I think Brook is going to find out that it wasn’t a fluke that he was dominated in the second half of the fight and was out on his feet against Jones.

Brook defeated Hector David Saldivia to earn the mandatory position last October in a 3rd round stoppage victory. That fight really made the International Boxing Federation look bad because Saldivia looked nothing like a top five contender, and it was such a terrible mismatch. Saldivia looked more like a 3rd tier fighter than a 1st tier top five guy. Brook beat him but proved nothing in the process other than he can beat a guy with an inflated ranking.