Hearn wants Bradley for Brook after Bizier fight

By Boxing News - 03/24/2016 - Comments

hearn53By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn wants Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) for his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) after his upcoming fight against his over-matched mandatory challenger Kevin Bizier (25-2, 17 KOs) this Saturday night on March 26 at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.

Unfortunately for Brook and Hearn, Bradley, 32, has a fight on April 9 against Manny Pacquiao on HBO PPV. Bradley is expected to lose that fight, and he could even be knocked out. Hearn doesn’t care. He STILL wants Bradley for Brook in the summer, even if Bradley gets whipped by Pacquiao first. Hearn doesn’t care.

Hearn thinks the British boxing public will still want to see Brook fight Bradley regardless of what happens in Bradley’s fight against Pacquiao. Further, Hearn thinks Bradley will come over to the UK to fight Brook in front of a British audience. So in other words, Hearn believes Bradley will take a loss to Pacquiao and then come over to the UK to fight Brook. Wow, what a dream.

“Top Rank aren’t going to make a decision and even if that is a great fight and Bradley loses and comes through that, it would still be a great fight for Kell Brook,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “I actually think Tim Bradley will beat Manny Pacquiao in which case maybe we’ll have to travel ourselves to the States – which doesn’t bother Kell or us in the slightest.”

First off, Hearn needs to come down from his pipe dream about Bradley beating Pacquiao, because that’s not going to happen. Secondly, Bradley IS NOT going to come to the UK to fight a little known fighter like Brook in front of his own fans. It’s not happening. Further, Bradley IS NOT going to fight Brook in the U.S either. That’s not happening. Why? Because

Brook isn’t well known in the United States, and there’s no upside in Bradley fighting him. Bradley would be better off fighting for the WBO title against fellow Top Rank fighter Jessie Vargas. I guess their promoter Bob Arum would stick the fight on HBO pay-per-view, and it’ll do low numbers. However, Arum wouldn’t have to share that sweet cash, such as it is, with another promoter. All the money would stay in house, so it’s still a worthwhile fight for Arum to make because he doesn’t have to share the loot.

It all stays in the family. It helps Arum and Top Rank if they match Bradley against one of their own like Vargas. With Bradley coming off of a likely loss to Pacquiao, I don’t see him putting Bradley immediately into a 50-50 fight against someone that won’t bring in big money like Brook, especially if Hearn is trying to get the fight in the UK. There’s no upside for Arum to match Bradley against a large welterweight, who can arguably fight at junior middleweight right now like Brook.

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It’s not worth it for Arum to make that fight. Brook isn’t a name, and a PPV fight involving him and Bradley would be lucky if it brought in even 50,000 PPV buys in the States. I wouldn’t want to pay to see a fight like that unless they dropped the price to say $1 dollar or 50 cents. Why would I want to pay to see Bradley fight with him coming off of a loss to Pacquiao? I sure as heck wouldn’t EVER want to pay to see Brook fight, because I think his record is COMPLELTELY padded with soft jobs from top to bottom.

The only good opponent Brook has fought is Shawn Porter, and he had to clinch nonstop against him to avoid a loss in 2014. I think Brook should have been disqualified in the Porter fight for excessive holding. Like I’ve said before, the holding that Henry Akinwande did against Lennox Lewis in their heavyweight fight many years ago with very similar to what Brook did in his fight against Porter. Akinwande was disqualified by a very good referee Mills Lane. Brook wasn’t disqualified, and I think the referee blew it.

“The Bradley fight is one I’ve always thought could happen for Kell Brook,” said Hearn.”I think he’s one of the elite fighters in the world that would travel. If we can’t find the big fights at 147lbs, Kell does have the ability to move up to 154lbs. We’d like to clean up the welterweight division.”

Yeah, I can definitely see Brook moving up to 147 once his mandatory is due against Errol Spence in 2017. I see Hearn having Brook vacate his IBF title rather than taking on Spence, and then having Brook move up to 154 to go after fellow Brit WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith for his title. Smith is considered by some boxing fans to be the weak link among the world champions at 154. I agree with that opinion. I don’t rate Liam Smith as being one of the better champions at junior middleweight.

I don’t think for a second that Hearn would position Brook to face the likes of IBF 154lb champion Jermall Charlo or WBA champion Erislandy Lara. Those guys are too big and too strong for a fighter like Brook. They’re not the type of guys that Brook can beat by clinching either. You have to actually beat them to win, and clinching won’t help Brook. But there’s no way Hearn puts Brook anywhere near those guys. I see Brook going after the soft target Smith, and then looking to milk that title like he’s been doing with his IBF 147lb title by facing weak opposition that the World Boxing Organization has ranked in their top 15.

“If we have to move up to 154lbs we’d fight Cotto or even Gennady Golovkin at something like 157lbs,” said Hearn.

Do you honestly think that Cotto will agree to fight Brook? I hope Hearn doesn’t hold his breath waiting for that fight to happen because it won’t. In order to fight a talent like Cotto, you need a big name in the States. The last time I checked, Brook isn’t a big name in the U.S. Therefore, Cotto isn’t going to burn up one of his last remaining fights facing a guy that is only popular in his own country and not the U.S like Brook.

Heck, I don’t even think Brook is popular in the UK, at least not like past fighters like Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe and Carl Froch. I mean, I think Brook could have been popular like that if he had started fighting the best fighters a long time ago instead of now. Brook is turning 30-years-old in May, and he’s been fighting as a pro for 12 years, and he has NEVER fought a big name before. That’s pretty sad, but it also shows you one of the reasons why Brook still has unbeaten record. If you fight nothing but fluff, then yeah, you’re going to have an unbeaten record.

Gennady Golovkin is probably not going to agree to fight Kell Brook at any kind of catch-weight. If Hearn asks K2 for Golovkin to come down to 157 to fight Brook, he’s going to be likely laughed off the telephone line by his promoters. Golovkin said recently that the ONLY fighter that he would come down in weight for to fight at a catch-weight is Floyd Mayweather Jr. I hate to break this to Hearn, but Brook is not Mayweather and he never will be. So if Hearn and Brook want a fight against Golovkin, then they’re going to need to man up and take the fight at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160. If they want the fight, then that’s how they’ll get it. However, I really don’t see Golovkin investing one of his fights to take on a little known fighter like Brook in the U.S. Golovkin has other more important fights he’s looking to get against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders for the middleweight belts.



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