By Scott Gilfoid: Former multi-world champion Shane Mosley expects unbeaten #3 IBF Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KOs) to give unbeaten #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) a lot of problems when the two of them meet up in an IBF welterweight eliminator out this summer.
Spence, 26, is being asked to fight in an International Boxing Federation eliminator in order to become the mandatory challenger to IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. It’s kind of a controversial move though because Spence just finished beating a similar fighter to Ponomarev in Chris Algieri, and now he’s forced to jump through another hoop to get the Brook fight.
By the way, Mosley feels that Spence beats Brook, and possibly stops him. Mosley says one of his sparring partners hurt Brook with a body shot. It’s unclear if this is the same fighter that hurt Brook last year with a body shot that caused him to miss some time with the injury.
“I think he’s a talented fighter,” said Mosley to Fighthype about Errol Spence. “I think he should be able to take Kell Brook. He might be able to stop Kell Brook. I heard my sparring partner hurt him to the ribs, and Errol is a hard puncher to the body. So if he’s getting hurt from little guys to the body, then…Errol Spence is tall, he’s a southpaw and I think he’d give Kell brook a lot of problems. Kell Brook is the typical fighter fighter who throws punches and backs up and likes to counter. I think that would be a hard for him to fight Errol Spence, who is a southpaw. He’s a strong southpaw.”
It would be interesting if Brook winds up being an easier fight for Spence than Ponomarev. We saw how Brook struggled in his fights against Carson Jones and Shawn Porter. Jones should have beaten Brook in their first fight four years ago, and Porter clearly would have beaten Brook if he didn’t clinch all night long.
Take away the clinching, which should have led to points deducted, and you have Porter winning that fight. What we learned from those two fights is that Brook does not handle body punching at all. He struggles when someone lands to his body, and he can’t deal with pressure very well at all. When you pressure Brook, he holds like mad.
“That’s going to be an interesting fight,” said Mosley about Spence vs. Ponomarev. “Konstantin punches hard too. He takes a good shot. He’ll take a beating and he’ll still come back and fight. He’s one of those types that you have to kill him to stop him, and Errol Spence is a pressure fighter. He’ll stay on top of him and hit him, hit him and hit him. Abel’s not going to let him stop. Abel’s like, ‘you better go out there and fight.’ He’s fighting to the end,” said Mosley about Ponomarev.
I have a feeling that Mosley is right about Ponomarev being a handful for Spence. Never the less, I still see Spence bludgeoning Ponomarev to a stoppage. He may take a good head shot, but I don’t think he was brought up to take the kind of body shots that Spence will be hitting him with. Some fighters can take a career’s worth of head shots in one fight and not be bothered, but when you go to their body, they crumble just like any normal fighter would. A body can only handle so many hard punches before it causes the fighter to wilt. My guess is that’s what happens with Ponomarev.