Kell Brook vs Brandon Rios

Evening gents.....

Talks ongoing on this one according to reports, but negotiations have hit a snag with Hearn offering a low amount of cash for Rios to travel to the UK.....not only that, but the brook/Hearn camp are demanding he doesn't wear the Everalast punching gloves (see Floyd vs Maidana).....

Is this for real? Brook can demolish rios and look very good in doing so. Not sure why they are acting like this.

Hope it gets made soon to be honest, be a good scrap.

Brook needs this fight more than Rios, despite being the better fighter with more to lose. Rios is already a name and he will continue to get big fights because of his willingness to fight, whether it be Provodnikov, JMM, Mathhysse, Garcia, Bradley etc he will always get fights.

Brook on the other hand has a good following here in Britain to get a good quality of life as he'll make a pretty penny, but wont get the big big fights and big big paydays that he can get if he keeps upping his competition

The gloves is ridiculous, he isn't a name enough to make those demands

If he can't beat Rios he's wasting his time.....

He's a safe name like Martinez.....Which is why Hearn picked the fight..

Although Rios isn't an awful choice it's disappointing.

Brook fought for years trying to get his title fight and since he won has had two poor opponents and now Rios, which to be fair looked good against Alvarado but won't offer much.

If he doesn't fight a high ranked opponent after he'll be rightfully criticised as champion playing it safe like Felix Sturm in his hey day.

Brandon Rios is the epitome of what is called a human punchbag. Tough, keeps moving forward but offers little in the way of skill or speed. Coupled with the fact he's not a real welterweight, he is the typical Kell Brook opponent. As a so called world champion, he really needs to start moving up a gear.

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

I give credit to Kell for that one single performance, even though I think he lost the fight. He didn't seem too keen on giving Porter the rematch.

Sam_London wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

I give credit to Kell for that one single performance, even though I think he lost the fight. He didn't seem too keen on giving Porter the rematch.

Probably something to do with getting stabbed in the leg by a machete

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

I give credit to Kell for that one single performance, even though I think he lost the fight. He didn't seem too keen on giving Porter the rematch.

Probably something to do with getting stabbed in the leg by a machete

I think Hearn had ruled out the rematch before the stabbing. Anyway, is this the excuse used when Gavin was chosen for his first voluntary defence? We all know Hearn is protecting Brook. Why not travel to the USA, like other British boxers have, and seek out the big name opponents?

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

That was one fight out of thirty-five so far, Coxy. Fair to say that the use of 'typical' wasn't too far off, overall.

The Rios fight - if it comes off - is no disgrace at all in itself. But it's coming off the back of successive mis-matches against Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin. There's no real excuse or justification for Brook to have three consecutive defences against guys who clearly aren't inside the top ten Welterweights in the world given how much talent there is at 147 at the moment and how big he and Hearn are talking.

Hopefully it's still early days in Brook's championship career so I'm confident that once Rios is out of the way (Brook shouldn't really be losing to Rios if he's even half as good as his die hards claim) there'll be a much bigger and more impressive fight just around the corner.

What concerns me, though, is how Brook's career and PR seems to be becoming all about Khan. Yes, it's the most enticing fight for him and it's understandable that he wants it, but it shouldn't become an obsession. I can see a scenario where Brook continues to take these kind of fights and his followers just shrug and defend it by saying, "Well, he wanted Khan but Khan's ducking him, so it's not his fault" or something along those lines, as if Khan's the only top opponent out there for him. There are some superb options out there aside from Amir if he continues to play hardball.

I've said before that if Khan does get the Mayweather gig then you can't really be too critical of him passing up on the Brook fight, but by that same token if Khan-Brook doesn't get made but Brook goes on to fight someone like Thurman, Maidana or Bradley, I'd just be thinking, "Amir who?"

With regards to the stabbing, I don't really see that as a viable excuse. You can't say that someone like Khan is running scared of you, that you're going to do this, that and t'other to him in the ring, have your promoter talking about you as the second best Welter on the planet and even capable of fighting and troubling Mayweather etc and then say, "Yeah, but I the stabbing left me with a nasty injury so I don't have to fight guys right at the top just yet" when people point out that your current opponents aren't from the top plate.

Sam_London wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:

Sam_London wrote:he is the typical Kell Brook opponent.

Just like Porter was yeah? The highest ranked WW a brit has fought since Hatton...?

I give credit to Kell for that one single performance, even though I think he lost the fight. He didn't seem too keen on giving Porter the rematch.

Probably something to do with getting stabbed in the leg by a machete

I think Hearn had ruled out the rematch before the stabbing. Anyway, is this the excuse used when Gavin was chosen for his first voluntary defence? We
all know Hearn is protecting Brook. Why not travel to the USA, like other British boxers have, and seek out the big name opponents?  

Why does he as the Champion have to go over to America to fight the big names, aside from Mayweather they should be coming here to face him, not sure on what basis anyone could have him losing the Porter fight.

I had the porter fight razor thin hammy, so did a few others. It was a volume v quality issue. Porters volume generally winning the day in the first half of the fight for me, brook's better quality when porter slowed.

Unfortunately that has me largely agreeing with jim watt, which is scraping the barrel in terms of support I grant you! Most of the yanks ringside had it for brook so I recognise I'm in the minority.

You say that hammer but we have had champions that have had to travel to America to get the big fights.

Khan defended against Peterson in his back yard for example.

Calzaghe travelled to Germany

Not bashing brook but he could quite easily have fought a lot better than Jo Jo, Gavin and potentially Rios (although I think that's a good step up and a good marketing play by Hearn)....

Hopefully after Rios he DOES go to the states and fights a Maidana, Khan, Thurman, Bradley, Garcia, Broner, Porter rematch etc etc.

It's a great division and as champ he has to be fighting better then what he is currently.

But that's only my opinion

Are you actually trying to use Calzaghe as an example of a boxer fighting abroad, he was the definition of a stay at home fighter until the retirement tour against Hopkins and Jones; fighting Veit in Germany really does not count.

Khan didn't have to travel to face Peterson, he chose to because it was seen as a way of maximising profits in what was meant to be an easy defence. Brook however doesn't have to travel to face any of those mentioned at all any more than they have to travel to face him, none of them are big enough names to warrant American PPV.

Brook needs to start acting like a champion where Khan is concerned. Constantly calling Khan out when he's the title holder doesn't make sense and degrades the title. He should be getting called out not the other way around. Fair enough if he was fighting decent fighters too but Dan and Gavin are poor match ups. Mind boggling.

Not using him as an example at all in that respect Hammer....but he travelled more than once outside the UK even as a champion. Froch has also done the same and has fought a plethora of class opponents back to back over the years.

Khan may not have had to travel, but he did and that's that.

If he doesn't travel he will miss out on those big names. Unless he unifies the division he won't get a top fighter to Sheffield unless it's Amir.

Hope he realises that.

Hearn spent big money gaining titles for DeGale and Brook, theres no way he is going to risk them unless its for a high earning PPV fight

DeGale and Brook both won their titles fighting away on other promoters shows.

Matchroom didn't pay any money, let alone big money, on those title fights....

To be fair they did put in a big bid for DeGale-Dirrell but the bid was won by "I'd like to thank" Al Haymon.

They have invested heavily in the promotion of both fighters. Particularly Brook. Its time for some easy payback now they are credible champions

I'll agree they invested in Brook, not sure heavily would be accurate.
The majority of his opponents haven't been anything special and certainly not fighters that command large purses.

As for DeGale, he only had a couple of fights for Matchroom before the dirrell fight so no massive investment in him. He was mandatory for one belt (forget which, doesn't really matter!) when he signed for them

Matchroom have been pretty good at picking up fighters as they approach world title fights.