By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) is under the impression that a win tonight over his mandatory challenger Kevin Bizier (25-2, 17 KOs) will earn him the respect from the boxing world, and he’ll then be seen as the number one fighter in all of the 147lb division.
Brook and Bizier will be fighting on Sky Sports from the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK. Bizier, has lost two out of his last six fights in defeats against Jo Jo Dan. Bizier, 31, isn’t seen as one of the main talents in the welterweight division.
On the contrary, he’s seen as someone that the International Boxing Federation chose to put as their number one fighter after Bizier beat Frederick Lawson and little known Fouad El Massoudi. Those are Bizier’s last two fights.
Before that, he was whipped by Jo Jo Dan for the second time. It’s extremely troubling that the IBF chose to give Bizier a number one ranking based off wins over Massoudi and Lawson, because there are clearly much better fighters in the division than those guys.
Massoudi (13-7, 1 KOs) is not a ranked contender. He’s a fighter on course to be a journeyman. Beating Massoudi shouldn’t have given Bizier a number one ranking, and the same with beating fringe contender Lawson. Those are no good enough opponents to give anyone a #1 ranking, or at least they shouldn’t be the type of opponents that would lead to a top ranking. I guess the IBF does things differently when ranking their fighters.
“I mean business and I need to get rid of Mr. Bizier in style,” Brook said to skysports.com. “Once I come through this fight, you’ve got to put me at No 1 in this welterweight division. This is a banana skin, I’ve got to go in there and get the job done. I’m more than ready to do that.”
Yeah, I think it’s pretty much academic that Brook won’t be proving anything tonight no matter how well things go against the over-matched Bizier. Heck, Brook can knock the Canadian Bizier out in the 1st round, and he’s still not going to be seen as the number one fighter in the welterweight division. In order for Brook to become the #1 fighter at 147, Brook is going to need to get busy fighting the likes of Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Danny Garcia and Tim Bradley.
If Brook can beat ALL of those fighters, then he’ll be seen as the number one fighter in the welterweight division. But surely a victory over the 31-year-old Bizier won’t do much for Brook other than cementing the opinion held by some boxing fans that Brook has but a padded record over his 12-year pro career. If Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn would stop with the record-padding fights like tonight’s mismatch against Bizier, then Brook could rightfully crow about being the best fighter in the welterweight division.
Unfortunately, I don’t see Hearn being able to get the fights needed to make Brook the number one fighter in the division. I mean, I don’t think Brook can beat all the top fighters at 147. We saw his clinching tricks in his fight against Porter. Brook didn’t appear to have the confidence to actually fight Porter, so he resorted to holding him all night long. It was like watching an old college basketball game before they had the 24 second shot clock.
Some teams would go into a stall by passing the ball around endlessly in order to keep the other team from being able to shoot their lights out. The games were incredibly boring to watch because it was just a giant stall by the weaker team that didn’t have great offensive players. Brook did the same thing with Porter. Brook didn’t have the inside fighting ability, so he went into a stall by clinching him each time Porter would come in to fight on the inside.
“That fight changed me with the preparation because anything can happen in boxing,” said Brook. “I’m ready for anything that my opponent brings, if he wants to come and fight then I’m ready. There’s nothing I’ve missed out in training.”
Well, Bizier will of course be looking to take the fight to Brook tonight. Bizier knows that he cannot afford to box Brook because he’s fighting him in his hometown and in his home arena. Bizier is going to need to take the fight to Brook otherwise he could wind up getting robbed of a decision. He’s going to need to beat Brook at his own game by slugging with him tonight.
Besides the Brook-Bizier fight, lightweight Luke Campbell (12-1, 10 KOs) will be facing the ring rusty 32-year-old Gary Sykes (28-4, 6 KOs) for the vacant Commonwealth lightweight strap. The 28-year-old Campbell is coming off of a surprise 12 round split decision loss to Yvan Mendy from last December. Campbell was supposed to have won that fight handily. Instead, he was pretty well whipped by Mendy. Now he’s on the rebuilding stage in facing Sykes, who has fought just once in the past two years.
If Campbell can’t win this fight, then he needs to hang up his gloves. He might want to do that anyway beause I can’t see him going anywhere after the loss to Mendy. He was pretty much found out by Mendy. If Campbell can’t beat the likes of Mendy, then he has some serious decisions he needs to make about his career and whether or not it’s worth it to carry on.
Winning medals in the Olympics means nothing when it comes to the pro games. Amateur fighting is like playing tag in using the white portion of your gloves to tap and score points. At the pro level, you need punching power, stamina, and you need to be able to actually fight rather than just tap. Campbell is able to tap, but he doesn’t have the power or the fighting ability to make things happen at this level unfortunately.
Also on tonight’s card is heavyweight David Allen fighting journeyman Jason Gavern, who is being brought in on short notice.
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