Theophane is a Light Welterweight and only has 2 remotely decent wins on his record Rodriguez (which everyone says is a bad decision) and Corley (who isn't all that good anyway). Very poor fight for a world title, this should be a tune up for the world title against Mike Jones.
Agreed this isn't a step up from Jennings people really do get hazy eyes as soon as they see that a fighter has fought in the US.
Yeah it is. Theophane has a few slick moves, never been stopped. Jennings is a very basic 1-2 artist with zero firepower whatsoever. Everybody knew all Jennings would come and do is jab and run.
I'm not so sure personally but I guess we will see come fight night, I don't doubt the talent level but my problem is that he is Light Welterweight, classic Frank Warren move.
Theophane will have been mixing with and sparring with better fighters than Brook has.... that's for sure. I won't criticise anyone for making this match. Sometimes people do get the rose tinted glasses when they see a fighter has fought regularly in the US, but that's equally the case when lads win domestic titles..... the fact that Matthew Hatton is the European champion only serves to emphasise this, bearing in mind his failure to prove that he's the best in Greater Manchester.
It's not just the fact he's fought in America though, McEwan fights in America and I think as a prospect he's not great and I don't think anybody except the resident Scots are particularly high on him. It's more the fact he's fought a couple of half decent fighters compared to the British level guys Brook and Jennings have faced (until Cotto of course). Whether he won a robbery or whatever in his fight with Rodriguez is not really of concern, the fact is he was highly competetive. Also, he lost a SD to Danny Garcia who is a puncher, he sparked out Arnaotis this weekend who was known for having a near iron chin coming through bouts with Torres, Urango, Holt etc, although its possible Ortiz cracked it and its on the decline. So by no means is he going to be an easy knockout, and he might be able to test Brook a wee bit.
No one is saying Theophane is great, most of us would pick Brooke to win. But these are the type of fights Brooke needs at this point. He's not ready for the elite yet, all this Berto talk is nonsense (even though i don't rate Berto). Kell needs a lot of fine tuning and this is the type of opponent who will ask questions and sharpen him up. Who else is he gonna face? because he would lose to the likes of Mike Jones IMO.
any1 get the feeling kell brooks chin might be a little suspect Look at the Ko ratio of his last 5 opponents michael jennings KO % 43% Krzysztof Bienias KO % 35% Michael Lomax KO % 10% Stuart Elwell KO % 6% Kevin McIntyre KO % 25% It seems warrens protecting him from any1 who can remotely fight there way out of a wet paper bag, thephane is a new edition to the featherfisted chumps on brooks undefeated record
We can use statistics to prove anything, we can also play this game with a lot of fighters at a similar stage in Brook's career. It's the same when people try and dissect weaknessess in great fighters records, everyone has 'fluff' on their record.
Joke if this is for a world belt. Decent fight for Brook but not the name opponent I would be expecting for his Dec card. Maybe an ex-champ like Malinaggi, Bailey or Kotelnik would be better. Clottey would be great but I don't think Frank would risk it. Brook is not active enough to keep Joshua in his shell.
kell brook is a special fighter and i think he will be an elite welterweight in years to come when may and pac retire, he has the confidence,power,cracking jab,fast reactions,hand speed and is always in great shape, his defence is a tad leaky at times, theophane is a good solid fighter and a great guy but brook will stop him and completely outclass him imo, hope this fight comes off.