brook9 By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) says he plans on standing and fighting #1 IBF challenger Kevin Bizier (25-2, 17 KOs) this Saturday night in Brook’s mandatory defense at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.

It’s interesting that Brook is saying he’ll stand and fight the 31-year-old Bizier, because this is the exact opposite of what Brook did in his toughest fight to date against former IBF 147lb champion Shawn Porter in 2014. In that fight, Brook moved a lot, and held constantly. It would have been great if Brook stood and fought Porter because the boxing world would have seen what Brook was made of.

Instead, we saw running, holding and spoiling from Brook. With the referee doing next to nothing to police Brook’s frequent holding, he was able to hold all night long to keep Porter from throwing punches.

In watching that fight again, it looks more like an MMA type of fight where a boxer is facing an MMA fighter in one of those hybrid fights. It was disturbing to watch. I think Brook should have been disqualified with the amount of holding he did in the fight. At the very least, I think Brook should have lost three to four points for the nonstop holding.

“I’ve seen him saying that he is going to try and pressure me on Saturday and that’s music to my ears,” said Brook via Fightnews.com. “I want to stand and fight. I haven’t had that fight night feeling for nearly a year and it’s been killing me inside. Saturday will be quite emotional for me and I feel a special performance coming on.”

Brook was supposed to defend his IBF title against Diego Chaves last October, but an injury Brooks suffered caused him to pull out of the fight. In the meantime, the IBF ordered Brook to fight Bizier rather than one of the more dangerous guys like Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter.

This will be Brook’s third defense of his IBF strap. He’s beaten Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan in his other two title defenses. Not surprisingly, Brook took a ton of heat from boxing fans for fighting Gavin and Jo Jo Dan rather than better fighters. However, the IBF was the one that made Jo Jo Dan Brook’s mandatory challenger last year. Now the IBF is making Bizier the new #1 challenger despite the fact that Bizier has lost 2 out of his last 6 fights with both defeats coming against the light hitting Jo Jo Dan.

Bizier isn’t a big puncher like Porter, so I guess that’s why Brook is eager to stand and trade with him rather than hold and spoil for 12 rounds. It’s obviously comforting to Brook that Bizier was twice beaten by Jo Jo Dan in the last couple of years. In fact, Bizier’s ring record in his last six fights is 4-2. That’s not too good, is it? When you’re looking at a fighter with a No.1 ranking with the International Boxing Federation, a record like the one that Bizier is troubling.

How in the world does the IBF rank Bizier at No.1 when he’s been beaten twice by Jo Jo Dan in the last three years. Is Jo Jo Dan the gold standard for ranking fighters at No.1? Those two defeats to Jo Jo Dan should be enough for the IBF to wipe Bizier completely out of their top 15 rankings, don’t you think? It’s not as if Bizier has beaten a bunch of good fighters.

These are the guys that Bizier has beaten in his last six fights: Fredrick Lawson, Fouad El Massoudi, Lazlo Fazekas, and Carlos Leonardo Herrera.

I’m sorry, but those fighters are not good enough for Bizier to be ranked No.1 by sanctioning bodies in my view. I mean, it’s senseless that the IBF has given Bizier a No.1 ranking for him beating this sorry lot of fighters.

Lawson is a decent fringe level fighter, but that’s about it. He’s a flawed fringe guy, and definitely not someone good enough for Bizier to be given a #1 ranking after beating him. As far as the other guys go, beating them shouldn’t have done anything to Bizier’s ranking other than keeping him at a lower level. When you take on lower level fodder opponents, you shouldn’t be moved to No.1 in the rankings. I’m just saying.

“Everyone is talking about a big summer fight and of course that’s on the agenda but right now I’m going to soak up the atmosphere in the arena in my hometown and go on a seek and destroy mission Saturday night,” said Brook.

What big summer fight is Brook talking about? I Brook certainly hopes to fight in a big summer fight against a top name in the welterweight division, but I don’t see it happening. Brook wants to fight Jessie Vargas, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, and Manny Pacquiao. I’d say the chances of Brook getting any of those guys to fight him in the UK are about zero.

Pacquiao is retiring in April, and Khan is interested in fighting Danny Garcia after his May 7 fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Jessie Vargas isn’t a big fight. He’s not a huge name in the States. I don’t know if the British boxing fans see Vargas as a superstar, but my guess is they probably don’t. As such, a fight against Vargas wouldn’t be a “big summer fight” unless Brook has low standards for what he considers a big fight. Danny Garcia probably isn’t going to take chances of fighting in the UK, especially with him likely facing Khan later on in the year.

Garcia is managed by Al Haymon, and I don’t see him giving him the green light to travel to the UK to fight Brook in front of his British fans. At the same time, Garcia vs. Brook isn’t a big fight in the U.S because Brook isn’t well-known with the casual boxing fans. So I don’t see Brook getting a fight against Vargas. However, Brook can always fight Errol Spence. I think he would agree to a fight with Brook in a heartbeat. I don’t think Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn likes the idea of Brook fighting someone like Spence. It’s took risky no matter where the fight is staged. I think it would be a passing over of Brook’s IBF title to Spence if that fight were to take place.