Brook vs. Alexander

By Scott Gilfoid: #1 IBF welterweight contender Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) won’t be able to make the May 18th fight against IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Brook, 26, has a stress fracture in his right foot and the injury won’t be healed by the time the fight was scheduled to take place. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to have the fight re-scheduled but it remains to be seen whether the International Boxing Federation will let the fight take place of it they’ll insert the next ranked contender to get a shot against Alexander.

This is Brook’s second injury while getting ready for the fight. Previously, Brook injured his ankle last January, causing his scheduled fight against Alexander to be postponed. Now, Brook has another injury and it remains unclear whether the IBF will keep giving Brook chances.

By Scott Gilfoid: The May 18th fight between IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) and Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) has been moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. He says that Alexander’s trainer Kevin Cunningham is reporting that it’ll be taking place there.

It’s unclear if this is in fact true because they’ve been talking about it taking place at the Convention Center, Washington, District of Columbia, USA. The Alexander-Brook fight will be on the undercard of the Lamont Peterson vs. Lucas Matthysse fight, and the reason why they were putting the fight in Washington, DC is because that’s where Peterson is from and he draws huge crowds.

It doesn’t make sense to place the fight in New Jersey because Alexander’s from Missouri, and it’s not going to draw flies if they stage in Atlantic City.

By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #1 IBF Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) may come up empty on February 23rd when he faces IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) in Detroit, Michigan, but he’ll at least prove ahead of time that he’s far, far superior to Alexander about talking himself up and bragging about his talents.

It’s just that he’s going to look like of silly if he fights the same way he did against Carson Jones last year in July. Brook was bragging about himself before that one too, and he looked awful to the extreme.

We’ve heard the excuses from him for why he looked so bad, blaming it on his conditioning. Like a lot of fighters that have excuses they like to use, he’s now saying his conditioning problems have been taken care of.

By Thomas Cowan: Ahead of Devon Alexander’s showdown with his mandatory challenger to the IBF welterweight world title, Kell Brook, Alexander is seemingly already looking past the Brit towards his next title fight. Alexander’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, has been talking up a potential bout with veteran Shane Mosley. However, is it dangerous to dismiss the Brook fight as a definite win for the American?

Now, it’s pretty obvious that Brook hasn’t exactly had the toughest route to this title shot. Brook really struggled last summer when he came up against Carson Jones, who is a 2nd tier fighter at best with 9 losses on his record, just about scraping his way to a majority decision win.

By Scott Gilfoid: Sky Sports analyst Glen McCrory has serious doubts that #1 IBF Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) will be able to beat IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) in their fight on February 23rd at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. McCrory feels that Alexander, 25, just has too much talent and experience for the underdog Brook to win this fight.

McCroy said to Sky Sports “I think Kell’s great. He’s going into the lion’s den against a tough fighter in Devon Alexander. When you’ve got guys like Lucas Matthysse and Marcos Maidana you’ve beat…at times he doesn’t look good, but he’s got fast hands and he punches hard. When you look at the way he did Maidana, he’s class and it’s a big step up for Kell. I hope he [Brook] does it, but it’s going to be tough.”

By Scott Gilfoid: Dominic Ingle, the trainer for unbeaten Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s), thinks IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) can’t handle pressure from his opponents. Ingle thinks Alexander struggles when he’s met adversity. Ingle points to Alexander’s loss to Timoty Bradley in 2011, and his close decision wins over Lucas Matthysse and Andriy Kotelnik in the past. He thinks those guys gave Alexander problems due to their pressure.

Ingle said to secondsout.com “Devon Alexander’s alright when he’s doing what he wants to do, but as soon as someone starts to apply some pressure like what we saw with Matthysse and [Andriy] Kotelnik, and I don’t classify them as good as Kell Brook.”

A couple of things here: first off, I don’t rate Brook as being as good as Matthysse or Kotelnik. I definitely see them as better fighters than him.

By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) doesn’t mind the fact that he’s the underdog for his February 23rd fight against IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Brook said to the liverpoolecho.co.uk “It’s the first time in my career I’ve been the underdog but it doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to show him and the world…I’ll go out there and won’t be denied.”

If Brook is going to show the world that they were wrong to select Alexander as the winner then Brook is going to have to look a lot better than he looked in his fights against Carson Jones and Hector David Saldivia because he didn’t show in either of those fights that he can beat a talent like Alexander.