This weekend sees Kell Brook fight Australian boxer Michael Zerafa at the FlyDSA Arena in a WBA World Super-Welterweight Title eliminator.
Nicknamed, ‘The Special One’, Brook claims this may be his last fight in front of his home Sheffield crowd as he looks to secure bigger fights, including a mouth-watering clash against Amir Khan.
Our boxing betting expert previews the bout and gives you his best boxing bets.
Concentration the key for Kell
Having split from career-long trainer Dominic Ingle, Brook is expected to have novice trainer John Fewkes in his corner this weekend having trained with Kell in Fuerteventura.
This is Brook’s second fight at Super Welterweight having demolished Sergey Rabchenko at 154 pounds, however, with many speculating about a potential fight with Amir Khan at 147 pounds, Brook is expected to come in slightly lighter than Zerafa, giving a slight weight advantage to the Australian.
Whilst Saturday’s fight appears as a stepping stone to bigger fights, Brook must not overlook Zerafa who comes to Sheffield on the back of eight wins in a row with his last defeat taking place in 2015 to former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin. Despite that, Zerafa’s wins come against opponents that are nowhere near Brook’s level.
‘The Special One’ should win this fight, and comfortably. He comes in massive favourite at 1/50 with Grosvenorsport.com.
Huge opportunity for Zerafa
Zerafa comes to Sheffield in an attempt to spoil the party and propel himself onto the world scene. As the younger, more active fighter, the Australian’s best chance of winning this fight comes by frustrating Brook and taking him into the latter rounds.
Despite being the huge underdog, the challenger must think he can exploit Brook’s vulnerabilities that have seen him lose twice in his last three fights. Questions still remain over the stamina of the Sheffield-born boxer having not gone the distance since 2014 and on top of that, whether Brook has got over suffering from two broken eye sockets in his recent bouts is yet to be seen.
Coming into this contest with nothing to lose, Zerafa needs to stay in the fight until the later rounds and whilst he stands very little chance of out-boxing Brook, looking for a knockout from rounds 9-12 in the hope that Brook tires is perhaps the only way the Australian can produce an upset on Saturday night.
A career best performance may not even be enough for Zerafa to win this fight, and so it’s perhaps unsurprising, he goes into the bout at 11/1.
Brook to impress
Brook is one of Britain’s most exciting fighters, and you could argue his two defeats have only come against two top-ten pound-for-pound fighters in Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. Brook has previously beaten guys that are on a higher level than Zerafa so anything other than a knockout victory on Saturday night would be disappointing.
With the home crowd behind him, as well as a potential fight against Khan looming, I expect Brook to make a statement and win via knockout at 1/4.
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