On Saturday at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, England, current IBF welterweight champion and hometown kid Kell Brook defends his title against Romania’s Ionut Dan Ion, the IBF’s mandatory challenger.
Brook has not fought since last August, when he travelled to Las Vegas and defeated Shawn Porter for the IBF crown he is now defending. In the Porter match, the 28-year-old Brook showed a lot of maturity and composure, as he withstood Porter’s rush at the start to thoroughly outbox the likewise undefeated Porter and take his belt. For Brook, it was a coming out party, as he entered that fight an underdog. That is not the case in this current match with Ion, as he will be enjoying a home field advantage and a wide line at the sports books. The only real question mark here is whether Brook will have any residual effects after he was injured while on vacation.
With popular British fighters Adam Etches (middleweight, 18-0) and Gavin McDonnell (super bantamweight, 12-0-2) going for regional titles in 12-round bouts as well as up and coming Khalid Yafai (13-0) and Frankie Gavin (23-1) in 10-round bouts, you can expect a crazy atmosphere in Sheffield for this one. The full card, promoted by Eddie Hearn and matchroom boxing is rounded out with a handful of four and six rounds bouts and will be presenting 10 bouts in all.
In this latest video blog, our expert video blogger Miguel Iturrate reviews the odds for Brook-Ion and for the four other matches posted.
