Promoter Oscar De La Hoya is picking Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) to beat IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) by a knockout in their fight this month on May 27. Da Hoya is really high on the talent of the 27-year-old American Spence, and he sees him as too good for Brook. De La Hoya sees Spence obliterating Brook on the night when the two of them go at it at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.
However, De La Hoya does not like the idea of Spence traveling to the UK to put his unbeaten record on the line. De La Hoya views Spence as too much of a talent for him to be put in a risky situation where he could be potentially robbed of a win if the fight goes to the scorecards. De La Hoya’s view on this is echoed by a lot of boxing fans, who think Spence is being put in a position where he might need to knock Brook out for him to leave Bramall Lane the winner of that fight.
“I believe he destroys Kell Brook,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Dontae’s Boxing Nation. “He knocks him out. That’s how good he is,” said De La Hoya about Spence.
I think I speak for a lot of the boxing fans in saying that Brook should have vacated his IBF 147lb title and taken a couple of fights to recover from the beating he suffered in his last fight to middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last September. Brook had an injured eye from the Golovkin fight that needed surgery. Brook’s eye hasn’t been tested since that fight. While Brook’s chin held up in the GGG fight, his midsection didn’t fair nearly as well. Brook stopped fighting back after he got hit with a right hand to the solar plexus in round 5. Brook gave up the ship. Brook might as well have hoisted the white flag of surrender at that point because he was officially done after getting hit with a big right hand to the body by Golovkin. Brook clearly can’t take body shots. That’s what one thing I noticed in the GGG fight. Brook can take head shots, but definitely not body shots.
If De La Hoya’s knockout prediction comes true with Spence taking out Brook, it would be a pretty brutal blow to the boxing career of the “Special One.” I can see Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn making an impulsive knee-jerk reaction to the loss to Spence by Brook moving up to the 154 pound division to try and campaign as a junior middleweight. I think Brook and Hearn would try and rationalize why they lost to Spence by saying that it was too hard to make the 147 pound weight limit. If Brook loses to Spence, it won’t be due to the weight for the fight. It will be due to him fighting a better fighter than himself. Brook would likely do well against most of the other welterweights in the division apart from Spence, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. I think those big three have too much talent for Brook.
“I’ve said in the past that Errol Spence will be the best welterweight in the world in 4 or 5 fights,” said Abel Sanchez to Dontae’s Boxing Nation. “He’s my favorite prospect. I think this fight is too soon for him. I think Errol Spence is a Terry Norris type of fighter. Terry Norris fought Julian Jackson too soon,” said Sanchez.
I don’t agree with Sanchez with his opinion of Spence taking the Brook fight too soon. Spence is about to turn 28. At what point is it not too soon? Does Spence need to be 40 before he’s ready to challenge for a world title. Given that Brook was 27 when he won his world title, I think Sanchez is really underestimating Spence’s talent. Brook was never considered the future of the welterweight division the way Spence is now, and he beat Shawn Porter, albeit by a controversial decision.
As far as Sanchez saying Spence is similar to Terry Norris with his fighting style. I disagree with that too. Norris wasn’t a big body puncher like Spence. Norris was more of a head hunter, who did a lot of moving around the ring in his fights. Norris was never a seek and destroy type of welterweight. He was a boxer/puncher, who focused on throwing to the head. Sanchez says it was too soon in Norris’ career for him to fight Julian Jackson when the two of them fought in 1989. Jackson destroyed Norris in 2 rounds. I don’t think it would have mattered when Norris fought Jackson. He was always going to lose to Jackson, because that guy hit too hard. For Norris to beat Jackson, he would have had to knock him out before he landed any of his big bombs, and Norris didn’t have that kind of punching power. Norris was the type of fighter that needed at least 4 rounds to knock someone out. There’s no way that Norris would be able to keep Jackson off of him for 4 rounds. It’s good for Spence that Sanchez isn’t his trainer, because it sounds like he would have him burn through his career before he would let him fight Brook. Sanchez is talking 5 more fights before he’d let Spence fight Brook. That means Spence would be 29-years-old before he fights Brook. That’s crazy. Spence’s career would be stunted if he listened to Sanchez’s advice. I also don’t like the way that Sanchez had Golovkin boxing Danny Jacobs in their last fight in March. Sanchez should have followed Dmitri Pirog’s blueprint in how to beat Jacobs by attacking him right off the bat and looking for a knockout instead of boxing him. Golovkin could have made that an easy fight.
“It’s going to be a nice test to see if all my confidence is in the right place,” said Teddy Atlas about Spence. “Am I right to be this high on Spence? It’ll give me a little more of a barometer on that. I’m not afraid to say it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he not only wins but if he stops Brook. Give him credit. He’s going into the lion’s den,” said Atlas about Spence. “You’ve got travel all the way across the pond. That makes it more difficult. That adds to the difficulty factor, and not to even mention the judges you have to worry about,” said Atlas.
I totally agree with Atlas for the most part. Spence didn’t have any choice but to go to the UK if he wanted to challenge for Brook’s IBF title. They wouldn’t have made that fight in the U.S. If Spence went after WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman, he could be waiting years for his title shot against him. The same thing with WBO champion Manny Pacquiao. I don’t know if Spence would ever get a title shot against Pacquiao if he targeted him. That’s the politics of boxing. Spence is on the other side of the fence with him being with Al Haymon and Pacquiao with Top Rank.
Brook is the only guy that Spence could get a quick title shot against. As such, Spence only had choice and that was to go to the UK to fight Brook.
“I like Spence. It’s a very good test right now for him,” said trainer Freddie Roach in picking Spence to beat Brook. “I think he’ll win that fight by knockout. It’s about time. He needs to step up,” said Roach about Spence.
Roach has a better outlook on Spence’s boxing career than Sanchez. Roach says, “It’s about time. He’s needs to step up,” in talking about Spence In Sanchez’s case, he’s talking about waiting another 5 fights. I don’t like the idea of Spence having to wait until he’s 30 before he fights for a world title. All the wasted years he would have if he followed Sanchez’s idea. In the meantime, someone else would swoop in and beat Brook, and Spence would lose his chance.
“I’ve got to see what damage Triple G did to him,” said former world champion Kevin Kelley about Brook. “I think Kell Brook’s amazing. I’m not going to write him off so quick. I think Errol Spence is the future, a strong guy, a good guy, the future. The question mark is he picked the toughest welterweight in the division. Everyone else is easier. Kell Brook is the toughest. Kell Brook only fought Triple G because no one would fight him. After he beat Shawn Porter, I was like, ‘wow,’” said Kelley about Brook’s clinch-filled win over Porter in 2014. “I want to see how good Errol Spence is. This is a true test. I don’t like the fact that he’s fighting him after losing to Triple G. I would have preferred him to fight after 2 or 3 wins, and then fight him, because I don’t know the damage he’s done, Triple G, to him. Kell lost his first loss. He did better than most middleweights,” said Kelley about Brook’s fight with Golovkin. “Can Spence handle that man? I wouldn’t go to sleep on Kell Brook. I would not go to sleep on him. I’m going to say [the Brook vs. Spence fight is] a toss-up. I love Kell Brook. I like Kell Brook. I think Kell Brook can pull it out,” said Kelley.