(Photo Credit: Mark Robinson) By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) figures he’ll be ready for the mega fights against the likes of Manny Pacquiao and/or Floyd Mayweather Jr after he makes his first defense of his IBF title at the end of this month on March 28th against #1 IBF Jo Jo Dan (34-2, 18 KOs) at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
It appears that Showtime Championship Boxing is trying to put Brook into position to face one of those guys, because they’ll be televising the Brook-Dan fight, which shapes up to be a horrible, horrible mismatch.
On paper, it’s a mismatch and not even close to being a competitive fight, unless Brook isn’t the same fighter after his recent stabbing incident.
I really don’t think a win over Jo Jo Dan will be a big enough victory for Brook to get a shot at Mayweather or Pacquiao. Brook still has unfinished business with Shawn Porter, who Brook defeated by a controversial decision last August to win the IBF title. Brook clinched his way to a controversial 12 round majority decision win over Brook in that fight by the scores: 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114. I only gave Brook two rounds in that fight, because he was clinching constantly and getting worked over on the inside.
Brook was able to land an occasional shot while Porter was on the outside, but Brook was defenseless each time Porter came inside on him. I thought Brook should have lost points for the constant holding he was doing in the fight to stop Porter from throwing punches.
The International Boxing Federation has made Jo Jo Dan their No.1 contender at 147, but it’s hard for me to even see the guy as a top 15 contender. I see him as a fighter who’s been given a very generous and confusing ranking by the IBF. I mean, we’re talking about a fighter who beaten not once but twice by Selcuk Aydin. To me, that’s enough for me not to have Jo Jo Dan ranked even in the top 15.
It’s only been four years since the last time Dan was beaten by Aydin, and here are the guys that Dan has beaten since then to get the No.1 ranking by the IBF: Franklin Gonzalez, Damian Frias, Kevin Bizier [twice] and Lukasz Janik. Off of those wins, I could see Jo Jo Dan getting a No.1 ranking with the EBU, but definitely not a major world sanctioning body like the IBF.
They have Jo Jo Dan ranked above Tim Bradley, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, Diego Chaves, Sadam Ali, Fredrick Lawson, Frankie Gavin and Yoshihiro Kamegai, among others. I can’t see Jo Jo Dan beating any of those guys, or coming close to beating them.
“I’m not looking past JoJo I know he will bring the heat but I want to get this mandatory defense done and then target those mega-fights that are out there in the division,” Brook said. “I know he feels he worked so hard to get into the mandatory position just like I did, but I will be working twice as hard to keep the belt that I earned. After May 2nd, there will only be two champions in the division—myself and Floyd or Manny. I want to unify this division in style. I’m coming for them all.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqESHUJPmI
I think Brook still needs to beat some solid fighters in the welterweight division like Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana or Danny Garcia before he can start talking about fighting Mayweather or Pacquiao. If Brook can prove that he can defeat a quality fighter without clinching constantly 10+ per round, then I can see him deserving a shot at the big names, but definitely not now.
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