WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs) says he’s been sparring with welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) and he’s very impressed with what he’s seeing from the 26-year-old fighter. Spence is getting ready for his fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) on May 27, and it looks like he’s taking it very serious in training with the 5’11” Jermell, who is a little bit bigger than him.
Spence is 5’9 ½”, but his reach is as long as Jermell but he’s a little lighter. Jermell, 26, is getting ready for his title defense on April 22 against Charles Hatley (26-1-1, 18 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Sparring with Spence has got to be great work in getting Jermell ready for the 5’10” Hatley.
“I spar with Errol, and I’m a big guy. Errol is a problem, a very big problem in boxing,” said Jermell Charlo to esnewsreporting.com about how he spars with Spence. “I believe he’s going to make a lot of noise the rest of the year. I think Brook has a lot on his hands. He better take the dude serious. Train hard because I know one thing, Errol trains crazy. I’m talking about crazy. I’m 28-0, and I’m the WBC world champion. I’m like okay, Bro, let me pick up my game the way you working. He was like 3 months ago going 12 and 10 rounds in the gym,” said Jermell.
It would be nice to know who gets the better of the sparring between Spence and Jermell. Spence is more of a power puncher than Jermell, who is more of a technical type of fighter. Spence could be moving up to the 154 and 160 lb. divisions in the future as he puts on size. He says he’s already walking around in the 170s. That’s the same size as many of the junior middleweights weight after they rehydrate for their fights. No wonder Spence starts training eary for his fights. He’s got to get his weight right otherwise he could get too big.
Kell Brook is going to have some problems trying to deal with the talent and the punching power of Spence on May 27. Brook hasn’t had to fight any real body punchers during his career other than Gennady Golovkin, and he only briefly threw body shots in the 5th round of their fight last September.
Spence is going to be targeting Brook’s body from the minute the fight starts. Brook will have the fans on his side because the fight taking place at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England, but I don’t know if that’s going to help him. Jermell seems to think Brook is going to have problems in this fight.