Hearn says Errol Spence’s team turned down Kell Brook fight

By Boxing News - 05/09/2016 - Comments

hearn7444By Jeff Aranow: IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he was told by the management for unbeaten #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) that he isn’t ready to fight Brook for a world title yet.

Hearn says he asked them if they wanted the fight with Brook, but was told that he’s not ready to fight for a world title yet. It’s hard to imagine the management for Spence turning down a fight against Brook, because that’s a fight that Spence badly wants and he’s in position to fight for the title.

Spence recently stopped former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri in five rounds on April 16 last month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. At the time, it was thought that Spence would be the IBF mandatory challenger after that win.

However, the International Boxing Federation said that Spence needs to fight #3 IBF Konstantin Ponomarev next in an IBF eliminator in order to become the mandatory for Brook.

“We’re here for Errol Spence if he wants to play,” said Hearn to Thaboxingvoice.com. “He’s not ready yet. Whenever he wants it. Errol Spence is a fighter, but fighters don’t make the decisions. That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” said Hearn in refereeing to a remark that behind closed doors Spence’s people he’s not ready. “They’re not phoning me up, telling me, ‘Eddie, Spence isn’t ready for Brook.’ I said to them, ‘You want to do that right now?’ [Spence’s management then said] ‘Oh no, that one’s down the line.’ They’re fight [Konstantin] Ponomarev next, and then they’re mandatory for Kell Brook, which is 75/25. We love that. But honestly, Kell Brook is ready to fight anyone…Everybody knows in boxing how good Kell Brook is,” said Hearn.

Whether Spence faces Brook now or after he beats Ponomarev, it’s not a lot of time between those fights. If Spence’s management supposedly feel that he’s not ready for the fight against the 30-year-old Brook now, then they’re probably not going to feel any different if he beats Ponomarev because that’s only one fight. Ponomarev is a different fighter than Brook. The experience Spence gets from fighting Ponomarev isn’t going to be enough to change things in a significant way to get him ready for the Brook fight.

We don’t know if Hearn is on the level with what he’s saying about Spence’s management not wanting to take the fight now. It could be that Spence’s management has something different to say about it.

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Spence is 26, and he’s four years younger than Brook. Hearn has said that Brook will be moving up to junior middleweight after a couple more fights. Spence will need to fight Brook soon if he wants an opportunity to fight him before he moves up to the 154lb division. Once Brook is fighting at the higher weight, he won’t have any reason to fight Spence. Fighting Brook now will give Spence a chance to show that he can beat one of the best fighters in the world. It could be that Hearn may be the one that doesn’t want the fight for Brook.