By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it’s looking more and more like IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) will be facin Top Rank fighter Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) in August. Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn said repeatedly after his fight against Frankie Gavin that they like the idea of facing Rios next in August.
It’s a nice little mismatch for Brook, who has been complaining a lot about being ignored by Amir Khan for a fight. In turn, Khan is saying that he’s not interested in fighting Brook because the guy faces little known opposition and doesn’t take risks with his career.
If Brook faces Rios next, it will feed in perfectly to the main argument that Khan has for why he’s not interested in fighting him. In other words, Brook plays it safe too much rather than taking on the dangerous opposition like Keith Thurman and Marcos Maidana.
“They are talking about Brandon Rios and that really excites me because we all know that he loves to have a fight and he is entertaining for the fans, and that’s what I want to give,” Brook said via Skysports.com. “I want to give an all-action fight and he is the perfect candidate for the job.”
If Brook wants an all-action fight, then why isn’t he calling out Thurman and Maidana? Why is he calling out a guy that has eaten himself out of the lightweight division in Brandon Rios?
This is what Rios said about Brook last Saturday on his Twitter: “Does anybody have the link to watch the Brook vs. Galvin fight? Been trying to see what the hype is about?”
It sounds like Rios hasn’t even seen Brook fight before. You can understand why because Brook is pretty much an unknown in the U.S, as his fights aren’t televised over there except on rare occasions. It takes years for a fighter to get well-known in the U.S, and it takes even longer for them to build up a lot of fans. I mean, look at Amir Khan. He’s been fighting in the U.S for the past five years on Showtime and he still doesn’t have a fan base.
“His team is saying that he is going to come over and knock me out, so bring that challenge on,” Brook said. “I’m more than willing to take Brandon Rios on and perform in front of my British fans again.”
If Brook is willing to take on Rios, then he should be willing to fly over to the United States to face him in Southern California where Rios lives. I’m sure the fight would draw well, and it would give Brook some badly needed visibility.
Rios is coming off of a third round stoppage win over a shot Mike Alvarado last January. It was a really good performance from him. However, it’s unclear if Rios looked so good due to Alvarado being completely shot, or if it was a case of Rios coming in the best shape for the fight in years. In his previous fight against Diego Chaves last August, Rios looked terrible in getting a gift 9th round disqualification win after Chaves threw a phantom elbow in the 9th. It must have been a blinding fast elbow because I never saw it and I saw the fight in slow motion to try and see why referee Vic Draculitch made the call.
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