By Allan Fox: Derrick James, the trainer for unbeaten #2 IBF welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs), believes he would knockout both undefeated IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) if those fights were to happen.
James believes that Brook “exposed” Golovkin last Saturday night with his speed and boxing skills. Never the less, Brook was worn down, broken down, and stopped in the 5th round by Golovkin. Brook fought well for the first few rounds, but by the 4th, he was running, tiring and taking punishment. His punches were no match for the harder ones that were coming back from Golovkin. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel in round five to save him.
The chances of the 26-year-old Spence getting a fight against Golovkin or Brook are unlikely at this point. Golovkin has just been ordered to fight WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) by World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza. The two fighters have 120 days to make the fight happen. if Golovkin is able to get a unification match against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, then he can possibly put the Jacobs fight off until early next year, but he’s going to need to fight him by that point if he wants to keep his WBA title. Mendoza likely won’t let the Golovkin-Jacobs fight go for long on delay without stepping in and stripping Golovkin if he doesn’t follow the orders of the WBA.
“I said he would be too fast. He exposed ‘Triple G,’” said James to Michael Woods of RingTV.com. “Errol would knock them both out. He spars with heavyweights and cruiserweights every day…I have to talk to [Spence] about it and I believe he will beat [Golovkin] with skill, power and speed, but it’s up to him to actually take the fight.”
Golovkin would likely be raked over the coals by the boxing world if he took on Spence, because it would be the second consecutive welterweight he’s faced. Some fans might get the impression that Golovkin wants to take advantage of smaller fighters than himself by facing one welterweight after another. Besides all that, the sanctioning bodies might choose to not continue sanctioning Golovkin’s fights if he keeps facing welterweights. The WBA didn’t sanction the Golovkin-Brook fight, because of Brook never having fought at middleweight before.
Spence, 5’9 ½”, would be giving away an inch in height to the 5’10 ½” Golovkin, and that could prove to be a problem for him. Spence’s style of fighting in which he comes forward to throw body shots might not work against Golovkin, because he likes to fight the same way. Against Brook, Spence would likely have much better success, because the British fighter appeared vulnerable when he was being attacked by Golovkin with body shots last Saturday night.
Spence would be a very tough match-up for Brook, especially with him having to melt down to the welterweight division to make the 147lb limit. Brook would likely be weakened by the process of making weight, and this would give Spence a big advantage in the fight.
Brook used a lot of head movement and fast combinations to give Golovkin problems.
It wasn’t easy for Golovkin to land his big power shots despite the fact that he was throwing a lot of shots. Brook did a good job of getting out of the way of them. However, Brook’s last of punching power was a big disadvantage for him in this fight. He didn’t have the pop in his punches to hurt Golovkin, and he didn’t even look power compared to some of the welterweights like Keith Thurman and Spence. Brook’s power has perhaps been overrated by a lot of boxing fans because of the high number of knockouts on his resume.
Brook’s knockouts have come against weak opposition in the 147lb division and not against the best. Against Golovkin, Brook looked like a pumped up welterweight with moderate power, but decent hand speed and really nice boxing skills. Brook’s skills were what kept him in the fight. His lack of power is what prevented him from keeping Golovkin honest.
Brook has made it pretty clear that he won’t be moving back down to 147 to defend his IBF title. Brook says he wants to move down to the 154lb division and challenge the winner of the Liam Smith vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez fight. We could see Brook fight the winner of that match in May of 2017 if Brook’s right eye is healed by that time. Brook will be having surgery on his eye to repair a broken right eye socket that he sustained in the Golovkin fight.
Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he should be ready to fight again by spring or summer of next year. Canelo will be fighting in May of next year on Cinco de Mayo. He might be interested in facing Brook at that time if only to show the boxing world how well he could do against a common opponent with Golovkin. It would give Canelo the excuse for not having to take a risky fight against the likes of Daniel Jacobs, Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Julian Williams, Jermell Charlo or Demetrius Andrade. Those are dangerous fighters with excellent size, power and skills. It would make big news if Canelo would fight one of them, as the boxing world is still waiting for him to start taking on the good fighters once again. Canelo has been very selective in the opponents he’s been facing since his controversial win over Erislandy Lara in 2014.
As for Spence, he’s probably going to end up fighting for the vacant International Boxing Federation 147lb title against #3 IBF Konstantin Ponomarev next. The IBF will surely order that fight to take place once Brook vacates his IBF title. We still don’t know if Brook will vacate his title or not, but it looks like that will be the case.
Trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Ponomarev, 23, will beat Spence. That’s hard to believe, but you never know. Ponomarev will be dealing with a lot of punching power and pressure from Spence, and he might not be able to handle that power. Ponomarev had a lot of problems in barely beating Brad Solomon by a 10 round split decision last April. That fight showed that Ponomarev needs to make a lot of improvements if he wants to deal with the likes of Spence.