(Photo credit: Premier Boxing champions) By Dan Ambrose: This Saturday night’s fight between #10 IBF welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (18-0, 15 KOs) and #13 IBF Alejandro Barrera (28-2, 18 KOs) will be an IBF eliminator bout at the Bomb Factory in Dallas.
It won’t be a final eliminator though, as the winner of the Spence-Barrera fight will need to fight the top leading contender in a final eliminator to get a crack at the IBF title.
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook has reportedly been ordered by the International Boxing Federations to start negotiations for a title defense against #5 IBF Kevin Bizier.
Spence, 25, will need to jump through two hoops that the IBF are lining up for him before he gets a crack at IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook next year. Spence is a pretty talented fighter and you can be that he’ll be up to the task of getting rid of two fighters to get to Brook next year to try and take his IBF welterweight title.
The Spence vs. Barrera fight will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC on Saturday on the undercard of the Jermall Charlo (22-0, 17 KOs) vs. Wilky Campfort (21-1, 12 KOs) fight. Charlo, the IBF junior middleweight champion, will be defending his title for the first time against Campfort.
Spence will likely make easy work of the 29-year-old Barrera on Saturday night. This might not even be a fight at all, as Barrera has an inflated record and ranking. He’s beaten only lower level fighters since he turned pro in 2007, and he’s been beaten by little known fighters Ramses Agaton and Armando Robles.
This should be an even easier fight for Spence than his recent wins over Phil Lo Greco and Chris van Heerden. Barrera is technically a fringe contender, but he’s not a threat at all to a guy like Spence. For someone to challenge Spence, it would take a guy like Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, Lamont Peterson or Shane Mosley. I don’t know if even those fighters could hang with Spence because he’s got so much punching power to him. It would possibly be a mismatch for Spence against all of those fighters.
Spence is the real deal and could wind up as a world champion by next year if he can get the fight against Brook. It wouldn’t be surprising if Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn drags out the Spence fight into 2017 in order for him to continue to match him against guys that he feels are more interesting fights for him.
For Brook, he’s getting another easy title defense by only having to beat the 31-year-old Bizier for his third defense of his IBF title. Brook’s other two title defenses have come against Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin. What makes Bizier an especially bad world title challenger for Brook is the fact that he’s twice been beaten by Jo Jo Dan, a fighter who Brook stopped in the 4th round last March.
Also on Saturday card is 154lb prospect Erickson Lubin (12-0, 9 KOs) fighting Alexis Camacho (21-5, 19 KOs).
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