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By Scott Gilfoid: Sam Eggington (23-4, 15 KOs) will step in to replace injured IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook against junior middleweight contender Brandon Cook (20-1, 13 KOs) on July 28 in the co-feature bout on the Dillian Whyte vs. Joseph Parker on the O2 Arena in London, England. Brook suffered an ankle injury and had to pull out of the fight.
Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn wanted to give him a slight step up from his last over-matched opponent Sergey Rabchenko, who he demolished in 2 rounds last March. Cook, 32, was a step up, not a major step up in Brook, which would be another mismatch. However, Cook might be more than happy to beat Eggington, who is like a punching bag with the way he plods forward taking heavy shots from his opponents.
Cook being rated at # 4 by the World Boxing Organization and # 9 WBA at 154 suggests that he is going to be a real handful for Eggington. Hopefully, Hearn knows what he's doing in the past with Eggington in Cook, because this fight can quickly get over hand on July 28.
This is a big step up for the 24-year-old contender like Cook. Eggington, who takes a lot of punishment in his fights, has only had two fights at 154 since moving up to the weight clbad last April following a 12 round decision split at the hands of Mohamd Mimoune in October 2017. It became too difficult the 5'11 "Eggington to continue to melt down to147 to fight smaller guys, so he was forced to move up to 154 to face guys his own size. This means that it will not be possible to impose its size on the smaller welterweights that it has been fighting. He'll be fighting big guys with more punching power and boxing skills. That's bad news for Eggington's career, but what can he do?
If Eggington can not make any weight, then he has no other choice but to fight against his own weight. Paulie Malignaggi, who has retired after stepping in the 8th round last year in March. You can argue the only decent welterweight that Eggington fought during his five years in the division is Bradley Skeete, and he lost to him by a 12 round unanimous decision in March 2016.
In Eggington's first two fights at 154, he's beaten Achilles Szabo (24-19, 13 KOs) of Hungary by a 2nd round knockout last April, and Peter Kramer (8-1-1, 5 KOs) by a 4th round knockout last June. This will be Eggington's third fight at 154.
"I'm buzzing to get back to the O2 on a mbadive PPV show," Eggington said to skysports.com. "There was no way I was turning down this fight when they offered it to me. Cook likes to come forward and fight so I'm predicting an exciting scrap, he's going to try and make it hard for me. "
Well, if Eggington easily blasts Cook out, it's going to make his promote Hearn look bad because he wanted to match Brook against him. Hearn believes that Brook can win world titles at 154, and he has seen the light of day before. If a limited fighter like Eggington can beat Cook with ease, it's going to reflect badly on Hearn and on the WBA and WBO for him being rated in the top 10 by them.
If Eggington does not know what to do, it's easy to cook. I mean, it's
not like Eggington is going to beat any of the world champions in the 154 lb. weight clbad. I've got to be real. I do not like Eggington's chances of beating some of the top contenders at junior middleweight like Erislandy Lara, Erickson Lubin, Julian 'J-Rock' Williams, Tony Harrison, Trout Austin and Maciej Sulecki. I see all of those fighters beating Eggington with ease. The champions at 154, Jermell Charlo, Jarrett Hurd and Jaime Munguia, would be able to destroy Eggington. It would not be pretty, I hate to say it.
"He's highly rated in three governing bodies, so getting a win against him would do me wonders. Moving up to super-welterweight has given me even more energy to grind down my opponents and do damage late, "Eggington said.
Eggington's claim to fame is beating an over-the-hill Malignaggi in stopping him in the 8th round in their fight last year in March 2017 at the O2 Arena. Malignaggi is not known for being a puncher, but he had had some good shots. It was able to fight against the enemy, but it was not easy to get rid of it. Eggington, then Cook will have a very good chance of having a good time. The thing that Eggington is going to cook is not a puncher. He has more power than Malignaggi, which is not saying much, but he does not have major power. We do not know whether or not we are going to be able to do so with Eggington for the duration.
Cook's only career loss came to the hands of Kanat Islam in a 9th round knockout in September 2017. That was Cook's one step up fight in his seven-year career and it did not work out too much for him . Cook traveled to Kazakhstan to fight Islam in his home country in that fight. Cook will be a visitor again when he travels to the UK to fight Eggington in front of his fans. Hopefully, Cook gets a shake when it comes to the scoring for the fight if it goes to the scorecards.
It would have been better for Cook had he fought Brook, as it was a lot more upside down for him in the future than a defeating a limited fighter like Eggington. There's no gain for Cook in destroying Eggington, because it's already been done.
In other undercard action on the card, train heavyweight world title challengers Dereck Chisora and Carlos Takam will be facing each other, as well as welterweight project Conor Benn will be facing dayneyman Cedric Peynuad in a rematch.
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