By Scott Gilfoid: #5 IBF, #10 WBA welterweight contender Frankie Gavin (21-1, 13 KOs) signed a contract with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport stable on Tuesday in hopes that Hearn can get him a world title shot against IBF 147 pound belt holder Kell Brook.
That’s likely just what will happen in the near future, because Hearn also promotes Brook and it’s a logical fight.
Gavin’s contract recently expired with Frank Warren. Once Gavin’s contract was up, it seemed pretty obvious that he would then sign with Hearn because he’s got the big contract with Sky and it would give Gavin a chance for visibility along with a chance to get a title shot without him having to work his way into the No.1 mandatory spot like he’d probably have to do in order to get a world title fight against the other champions.
With Gavin now with Hearn, he can get an optional title shot without having to risk his hide against guys that would likely tear him apart like Amir Khan, Tim Bradley, Marcos Maidana, Brandon Rios, Shawn Porter, Robert Guerrero, Juan Manuel Marquez and Sadam Ali.
Whether Gavin rates is current ranking with the IBF and WBA is another question entirely. Based on his lack of wins over top level fighters and his loss to Leonard Bundu last year in August, I’d have to say no.
“Matchroom are the platform to world level,” Gavin said via Skysports.com. “When you talk about boxing everyone talks about Matchroom and Sky, and now I’m on that so hopefully there’ll be big things for me. I’m a rankings-high, at the moment – I’ve gone No 5 with the IBF, the title Kell’s got, but there’s no No 2, so really I’m No 4. Obviously Eddie’s got both of us, so it’s down to him to make the fight and obviously down to me to make my profile better. A couple of good performances and it’s up to Eddie.”
So there it is. Gavin will likely soon be getting a world title shot against Brook. I mean, it’s academic that Gavin will get the title shot, but what he does with the fight is another question altogether. I don’t see Gavin doing well at all against Brook, so it’ll be little more than a payday fight for Gavin in losing badly to Brook. Once Gavin loses, he’ll have to get back in line and resume where he was before in merely being a contender.
Gavin has won his last two fights since his loss to Bundu in beating little known Mate Hornyak and Bradley Skeete. I can’t say Gavin was all that impressive in edging Skeete by a close 12 round decision last November by the scores of 116-113, 116-112, and 116-113. This was supposed to have been a fairly easy fight for Gavin given that he was facing a domestic level fighter, but the fact that Gavin had to really struggle to get a win was really telling. It suggests that Gavin is more of a 2nd tier fighter than a top level guy with a high ranking by the International Boxing Federation and WBA. I mean, Gavin looked terrible in struggling to beat a guy that would likely have been annihilated by many of the top 15 contenders at the world level.
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