Kell Brook is far beneath Keith Thurman’s level

Boxingnews24.com

By J. Ortega: Casual fans came to the strange conclusion that Errol Spence beat Kell Brook, consequently earning the right to be ranked the number one welterweight at 147lbs. Brook indeed has good skills that allowed him to become the IBF champion, but is he truly more skillful and better overall than Keith Thurman? The answer is a resounding, no.

Brook’s most notorious victory came at the hands of beating Shawn Porter, who at the time was favorite to win the fight. Brook didn’t face in Porter a typical high caliber and technical American boxer, but a pressure boxer not often seen in America. Porter bulldozes opponents, overwhelming them with punches — reminds me of a Marcos Maidana on. Brook using his height, paced his one two combinations every time Porter rushed inside, neutralizing his reckless pressure. Brook won and became known outside of England.

Shortly after the Porter victory, Brook had the opportunity to fight Diego Chaves – a fighter that Timothy Bradley warned Brook, “would give him a lot of problems” – but given a late unexplained injury Brook pulled out from the fight with Chaves, never to fight the Argentinian. Chaves and his team were somewhat upset Brook was unwilling to restart negotiations after he had recovered from his injury.

Not long after, Brook had the opportunity to fight Jessie Vargas, a boxer who not many want to risk fighting, and who almost knocked out Tim Bradley in the later rounds and destroyed highly skillful prospect Saddam Ali. Yet, after all the negotiations Brook’s team pulled out, and decided to navigate different waters seriously aware of the dangers Vargas possesses on the ring. Team Vargas, and his coach Dewey Cooper thought Brook was a coward.

At that point of his career, Brook had yet to face a skillful counter-boxer, and a top ten American welterweight outside of Porter. Styles make fights, Brook had only proven capable of successfully neutralizing the highest pressure boxer in the welterweight division, but lacked enough experience against other good American boxers who present other qualities. He then made the surprise move, and fought the undefeated killer in the middleweight division Gennady Golovkin, without prior facing any power punchers in the welterweight division.

The move to fight Golovkin, proved a complete fiasco for Brook, as the fight ended in another Golovkin signature onslaught that ended with an orbital eye fracture. Brook jumped two weight classes only to receive a nice payday, unaware of the downfall that would arise after his loss. Brook fans insisted, Brook’s two-three good round performances against Golovkin proved he was at another level. So at that point, English fans crowned Brook as the best welterweight in the division, not actually having faced any significant challenges at 147lbs outside of Porter.

After much pressure from his fan base, insisting he would fight at 154lbs, Brook took on his mandatory Errol Spence Jr. As I initially suspected, based on Spence’s shaky defense, Brook was able to land good placed shots – mostly jabs — in the first six competitive rounds. As the fight progressed Brook’s weight drain started to show evident signs fatigue, and Spence smelling the blood went for the kill, making him quit. So at this point, people concluded that Spence had not only beaten the best welter, but made him quit.

English fans are known for their legendary story telling, books like Harry Potter, Peter Pan and other great children classics have come from the island and sell millions of copies around the world. But the reality is Brook is no Hercules, he would have probably lost facing other dangerous counter boxers, like Chaves and Vargas – both had significant power to stop any welterweight including Brook. Thurman stopped Diego Chaves with a perfectly placed left shot to the liver.

Brook never had the pedigree of Thurman, who faced really good and heavily underrated American counter-boxers. Consider old age Julio Diaz drew with Porter not long before Brook took on the American, and Diaz got destroyed and retired the night he faced Thurman.

Thurman beat avoided gatekeeper Luis Collazo, and made him quit the fight by the 8th round, an accomplishment not achieved by any other boxer. Sammy Vasquez Jr., a great American prospect was recently stopped by Collazo with a brutal knockout. Brook never faced a boxer at the level of Collazo.

Jesus Soto Karass KO’d a proven boxer on Andre Berto., only to lose via TKO against Thurman not long after the Berto fight. No one is Brooks resume had the technical aspects of Soto Karass. The same is true with Carlos Quintana, who beat via a uanimous decision the great Paul Williams – Thurman destroyed Quintana. I believe if Quintana out-boxed Williams, he could easily beat Brook, for Brook is not at the same level of Williams – not even close.

Listen folks, Brook’s resume is actually one of the weakest of any former young world champion. I have no doubts, Eddy Hearn’s and team Brook hid telling fans the precarious condition surrounding Brook’s eye injury long before facing Golovkin. They took on the Golovkin fight, because it was a money fight that would fill up stadiums in England, unlike Vargas and Chaves. I have no doubts, Vargas and Chaves would have also broken his orbital bone like Spence, as they would have landed many shots in Brook’s face – who’s propensity to get eye injured seems to be a chronic condition which he experienced earlier in his career.

Thurman is a different animal than Brook, and like Spence he would have also broken his eye socked without much trouble given his natural power. Spence will soon face the true champion at 147lbs, and he also will experience what is like to not have faced more experienced boxers in his quest to become a world champion. Spence hasn’t fought any top ten American 147lbs boxers who would have exposed the cracks of his precarious defense, instead he took on an elderly Italian and the pillow puncher.

It’s also funny how casual fans praise Spence for destroying Leonard Bundu and Chris Algeri, but they don’t praise Thurman for stopping Diego Chaves (never done before), Luis Collazo (never done before), Carlos Quintana and Julio Diaz, who all of them would easily pound Algeri and Bundu at 147, based on their experience. Let the hype keep coming, but it’s clear as Fiji water to me that Thurman is no hype and will stop Spence only to shut the mouth of casual bandwagon fans. Cant’ wait for Thurman to punish Spence.