By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is absolutely certain that the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight will be taking place in the UK rather than the U.S. Hearn says he will win the purse bid for that fight so that he can stage it in the UK. However, Hearn is open to the Brook-Spence fight taking place in the U.S. if Spence’s management wants to make a huge offer for the fight.
That might not happen. Hearn has an advantage with his ability to harness Sky behind the fights that he brings over to the UK. A fight between Brook and Spence is a pay-per-view match in the UK on Sky Box Office.
The same fight in the U.S would be on either Showtime Boxing or Premier Boxing Champions on one of the free network channels.
What’s interesting is that Hearn keeps mentioning the 75/25 purse split advantage that Brook would be getting for a fight against Spence. It almost seems like Hearn is not really interested in wanting to match Brook against Spence. I get the impression that by Hearn constantly mentioning the 75/25 split, he’s hoping that Spence’s manager Al Haymon will back out of the fight and have Spence go in another direction due to the split of the look not being big enough.
I don’t think that’s going to happen, because Spence REALLY wants the IBF title. Spence needs that title, and he needs Brook’s scalp to add to his collection. A win over Brook, especially a knockout win, will catapult Spence to near where the other top fighters are in the 147lb division.
It would put Spence pretty close to where Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia are in terms of popularity in the boxing world. The money that Spence gets for the fight against Brook is probably less important than having his scalp along with the IBF title.
If Hearn isn’t interested in having Brook take the fight with Spence, then he should be proactive about it by insisting that he vacate the IBF title now. It’s better to get it over with now rather than dragging it out until later. I’m just saying. Dump the IBF belt if you’re worried about Spence scalping Brook.
Goodness knows, another loss for Brook will likely send his stock plummeting to unseen depths. Let’s be real. Brook got a pass for his 5th round knockout loss to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last September due to Brook suffering an eye injury, and with him fighting a slightly heavier guy. Brook was able to blame the loss on his injury and the size of Golovkin.
Brook’s fans didn’t ride him hard about the loss, because he was able to last five rounds by running around the ring occasionally throwing pot shots. However, a loss for Brook against Spence, who is the same height and weight as him would leave him with no excuses. Oh yeah, there would obviously be an excuse from Brook. I think he would likely use these handy excuses:
– My eye started acting up on me.
– It was too hard for me to get down in weight to 147. I was just too tired and weight drained. I’ve got to move up to 154.
– I suffered a hand injury. My leg was also hurting.
– I was robbed. I should have won.
– The referee stopped it too soon.
– I don’t know why my trainer threw in the towel. I wasn’t hurt at all.
I wish Brook would just admit it when he loses. Brook needs to just say that he lacked the T-A-L-E-N-T to get the job done. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? I heard the excuses after Brook lost to Golovkin. Brook also lost to Shawn Porter in my opinion, and he wasn’t complimenting him the way he should have after getting that gift decision.
Gilfoid sees Brook DEFINITELY using an excuse after he loses to Spence. The only thing is I’m not sure his loyal boxing fans will buy his excuses this time. You can only use excuses so many times before the fans get dog tired of them, and see you as one of those types that can’t admit when you’ve been properly beat, and can’t give credit to those that thrash you.
What’s sad is that Hearn is still flapping his gums about wanting to match Brook against Manny Pacquiao or Amir Khan next, as if either of those guys is going to come forward to offer Brook a fight.
I hate to drizzle on Hearn’s parade, but it doesn’t look like Pacquiao OR Khan is going to bother fighting Brook. As such, Brook and Hearn have a choice. They can either agree to fight Spence or they can vacate. That’s all there is. Give up the IBF belt, so Spence can fight the likes of Jeff Horn or Konstantin Ponomarev for the belt. Those are nice little mismatches for Spence. Heck, the IBF might as well just give Spence their belt if Brook vacates the title and scrams. I think it would be too easy for Spence to trounce Ponomarev or Horn to win the IB title.
Hearn said this to Fighthype.com about Brook’s next fight:
“All is well. He’s been training, and we want to see him box Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao or Errol Spence,” said Hearn about Brook. “Those are the three guys we want for Kell Brook.”
When asked why he wants to put Brook in with Spence, Hearn said, “Because I believe Kell Brook is the best welterweight in the world, and more importantly, he won’t vacate his belt. So he says to me, ‘I want to fight Errol Spence, and I’ll beat Errol Spence.’ It’s a 75/25 purse bid, so he’s thinking, ‘Yes, please. Its huge money and I’ll beat him.’ No, we’ll win the purse bid unless they want to pay huge money, then we’re more than willing to come here,” said Hearn.
Asked about a fight between Brook and Pacquiao, Hearn said, “I don’t think so. I think Manny will be looking for a huge fight, and I don’t think Kell is that fight. I think it’s a big fight, but I think he’ll be looking at somebody else, maybe Broner.
“We didn’t have a fight of any magnitude, and Kell Brook, his time is running out,” said Hearn about the Brook vs. Golovkin fight last September. “We’d been searching for a fight for so long, and that fight presents itself. We knew we were up against it. You’re going to earn a lot of money. We believe you can win the fight. We believe even if you don’t, you’re going to have a great fight with Golovkin. Your stock is going to rise, and all of those things happened. The only downside was the injury. We’re a bit disappointed.”
