By Scott Gilfoid: Well, Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn wasn’t kidding around when he said he was going to get a big name for his fighter unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook (30-0, 20 KO’s) to fight. Hearn has found Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 22 KO’s) for Brook to fight on October 26th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
If Hearn is talking about a big name in terms of letters then Senchenko is definitely the man. I can’t think of too many fighters at welterweight with a bigger name than that. This is not a big name as far as talent goes, but then again I never thought for a second that Hearn would find a big name for Brook to fight, so this is classic for Brook and Hearn.
Why would they all of a sudden break the pattern weak opponents for Brook? Brook hasn’t been with Hearn for very long, but in the time he’s been with him we’ve seen Brook matched against Matthew Hatton, Carson Jones [twice], and Hector Saldivia. Now we’re about to see Brook matched against Senchenko. I’m not quite sure why Hearn is matching Brook against weak opposition, but it makes it hard to see him as a serious contender with such a weak resume. Why doesn’t Hearn match Brook against Marcos Maidana or Diego Chaves?
I figure it’s either a money issue of not having the deep pockets to get a good opponent and simply not wanting to put Brook in against a good opponent for fear that if he gets beaten, he’ll lose his out on the opportunity for a nice payday against Devon Alexander or possibly Amir Khan.
Brook makes good cash selling out the Motorpoint Arena against weak opposition. His fans flock to see him no matter who he faces. You could put him in with the likes of Senchenko and the fans won’t care.
I suppose Hearn chose Senchenko as some kind of revenge thing where Brook is getting revenge for Senchenko’s 9th round stoppage win over a past his prime Ricky Hatton last November. Hearn can market the fight and keep talking up that Brook is avenging Hatton’s loss. That would be laughable if Hearn does that, but so predictable that it’s not even funny.
Heck, you could have thrown pretty much anyone in the ring with Hatton last November and they would have beaten him, because he looked totally shot. There was nothing magical about what Senchenko did, so I think the whole revenge aspect is a joke.
The one that should be trying to avenge the loss, if anyone, is either Hatton or his brother Matthew Hatton. Brook can’t do it. He’s not family.
Senchenko is technically still a contender at 147, even though he completely dominated in every sense of the word by the light hitting Paulie Malignaggi. If I was Brook that would be enough of a reason for me to want nothing to do with Senchenko.
If Hearn mentioned his name, I would say no to that fight because Senchenko has already been exposed. Besides that, he never actually fought anyone good and that’s the incredibly sad part about him. Senchenko was the WBA welterweight champion in 2009 after beating Yuriy Nuzhnenko, but I don’t consider that a real champion.
Besides the guy Senchenko got the strap off of, look at the fighters that Senchenko defended his title against: Motoki Sasaki, Charlie Navarro and Marco Antonio Avendano. Who are these guys? I have never heard of any of them, yet Senchenko defended his WBA welterweight title against them before getting dominated and stopped by Malignaggi last year in April.
If you look at the rest of Senchenko’s opposition on his resume the only recognizable name if can see is Frederic Klose, a fighter that both Senchenko and Nuzhnenko. That disqualifies Klose to be considered a good fighter in my book if he lost to those two guys.
Senchenko never fought anyone good to get the WBA title, and then was spanked against Malignaggi. So why in the world is Brook fighting Senchenko? I don’t understand it, but it fits with the match-making that’s been done for Brook since he turned pro, so it’s so classic.
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