Kell Brook vs Krzysztof Bienias Live Match Preview

The main support for the Smith v Dodson fight is the eliminator for the WBO welterweight title between Sheffield’s Kell Brook and Poland’s Krzysztof Bienias.

Brook, 20-0 (13 KO’s), is now at the stage of his career where he’s ready leave the ‘hot prospect’ tag behind and should be looking to make inroads at world level. He’s still a few fights away from facing the major players in the division and he must ensure that he’s ready to take the step up to that level when the opportunity arises.

Star-divide

Brook is a confident, and slightly cocky, heavy-handed fighter from Brendan Ingle’s Wincobank Gym, which has inevitably led to comparisons with Ingle’s most famous protégé Naseem Hamed. There are definitely similarities between the pair – punches from unusual angles, low held hands and upper body movement for defence and chilling knockout power in both hands. Although I do feel Brook’s style, whilst still sticking to the philosophies of the Ingle way, is slightly more orthodox than that of Naseem’s - his jab is very solid and he doesn’t tend to load up with the big punches like Hamed did.

The best performances of Brook’s career have come against his hardest opponents; he out-boxed Barrie Jones before stopping him in the seventh to claim the British title before making successful defences against Kevin McIntyre (KO1), Stuart Elwell (KO2) and Michael Lomax (KO3). The way he destroyed McIntyre was particularly impressive, it was expected to be a hard fight but Brook jumped on the Scotsman from the opening bell and had him down and out inside two minutes.

Bienias, 39-3 (16 KO’s), is seven years Brook’s senior and is vastly more experienced. Two of his three defeats have come in European title tilts against world class operators Oktay Urkal and Junior Witter. He was soundly out-boxed by Urkal, whilst Witter blew him away inside two rounds, though he was still on his feet when the referee stopped the fight. He’s gone unbeaten in the five years since the Witter defeat, albeit against opposition that was either poor or average.