Hearn: Brook says he’ll KO Errol Spence

By Boxing News - 02/20/2017 - Comments

Image: Hearn: Brook says he’ll KO Errol Spence

By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn says his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) told him that he’s going to be knocking out challenger Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in their fight on May 27 in Sheffield, England.

That’s what Brook said to Hearn. Brook seems to be up in arms due to the boxing fans thinking he was going to duck the Spence fight due to the difficulty of the match. Further, Brook isn’t happy that Amir Khan thought he would dodge Spence as well. As such, Brook wants to prove the fans and Amir Khan wrong by not only fighting the 26-year-old Spence, but also knocking him out as well.

It’s nice that Brook is ambitious and wants to show the people how wrong they are about him, but there’s a thing called reality that’s probably going to get in the way of him making his pipe dream come true. Brook isn’t much of a puncher. Yeah, he has a lot of knockouts on his resume, but the knockouts mostly have come about in Brook beating guys like Hector Saldivia, Rafael Jackiewicz, Luis Galarza, Carson Jones, and Jo Jo Dan. Brook has never knocked out anyone that I call a good fighter. Brook has stopped a lot of 2nd and 3rd tier opponents, but not the quality guys, which there are only two on his resume – Shawn Porter and Gennady Golvokin.

“A lot of people said he was going to duck Errol Spence,” said Hearn about Kell Brook to IFL TV. “He went up to middleweight and boxed Golovkin. So for me, I thought he’d [Brook] make light middleweight a lot more comfortable. I said to him, ‘Let’s look at 154 pounds.’ The problem was two things. There’s no huge fights at 154 pounds. Secondly, he didn’t want to give up his title. When people started saying, ‘you’re going to duck Errol Spence.’ Even [Amir] Khan came and said, ‘Go and fight Spence.’ He thought there’s no way Kell will fight Spence. Brook turned around and said, ‘[expletive] it, I’ll fight Spence. I’ll go and knock him out. Watch me.’ That’s his mentality. As soon as he said that to me, there was no turning back. I didn’t even try to make him change his mind,” said Hearn.

As much I want to give Brook credit for taking the Spence fight, it’s hard for me to give it to him. Brook was backed against the wall when the International Boxing Federation ordered him to face Spence in his next fight. Brook only had two options: vacate his IBF title and move up to 154 or fight Spence. There were no big names available for Brook to fight at the time, which would give him cover if he were to have chosen not to fight Spence. Brook wanted to fight Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Miguel Cotto or Keith Thurman. None of those guys were available and/or willing to fight him. So, if Brook had vacated his IBF title, he’d have looked bad in avoiding Spence, and there wouldn’t be any big fights for him anyway.

Besides that, the options for big money fights for Brook at 154 were totally nonexistent. Saul Canelo Alvarez is moving up to the middleweight division, and Miguel Cotto has shown no interest in fighting Brook. If Brook had risked his hide against the other top 154lb fighters like Jarrett Hurd, Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Julian Williams or Jermall Charlo, he likely would be beaten by all of those fighters. Moving up to 154 would have a bad move for Brook. It’s surprising that Hearn wanted Brook do to do that, because it suggests that the promoter isn’t familiar with the high number of talented fighters that would likely beat Brook quite badly.

“The more I think about it now, I say let’s do it. Let’s go and become the number 1 welterweight in the world, and by the way, let’s do it at Bramall Lane [in Sheffield],” said Hearn. “How do you like me now, [expletive]. That’s really the mentality now. We really believe Kell Brook is the best welterweight in the world. I think Errol Spence might be number 2. He might be Number 1. What a fight! The fight worldwide for the fight has been sensational. It’s another crowd-pleaser. it was very difficult for them to win the purse bid. We still had to come out with the right amount of money that they felt was fair, which we did,” said Hearn.

Hearn started to animated when he was talking about Brook proving the boxing public wrong by beating Spence. It appears that Hearn really believes that Brook CAN beat Spence. If that happens, I’m sure Hearn will be smiling from ear to ear like the Cheshire cat from Alice and Wonderland. But, the reality is a lot different. Spence will likely be the favorite in this fight, and it’ll likely be him wiping the deck with Brook on May 27. I don’t think it matters that the fight is going to be taking place in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield in the UK. Spence is seen as the new star in boxing at 147, and he’s the one that is likely going to win with ease. As I’ve mentioned before, Brook isn’t viewed as the next star or even the best fighter in the welterweight division. He’s just seen as a belt holder. That’s not a knock on Brook. He’s at least a title holder. Brook just isn’t seen as the No.1 or even the No.2 welterweight in the division. He’s a good fighter but not the best. Therefore, if things don’t work out for Brook against Spence, I hope Hearn doesn’t take the news too hard, because the signs were already there going into the fight that Brook would be out of his league in the fight.

Speaking about the date of the Brook vs. Spence fight, Hearn said, “It’s probably May 27. I want to make the fight at Bramall Lane.”

If the Brook vs. Spence fight doesn’t take place at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, Hearn says the backup option is at the O2 Arena in London, UK. That’s a much smaller venue than the 32,000 seat stadium at Bramall Lane, which is why Hearn prefers that the fight take place there. There will be more boxing fans rooting for Brook, and of course more money to be made. Brook fought his last fight against Gennady Golovkin with the crowd on his side at the O2 Arena in London, but it didn’t change anything. Brook couldn’t stand and fight Golovkin for a long enough period for him to have a chance of winning. The only thing Brook could do is run around the ring and throw occasional punches.

“Amir Khan has to understand that the fans make the fights, the fans page the wages,” said Hearn. “You don’t show disrespect to the fans. What the phrase should have said is the Brook-Khan fight happens when the fans want it. The fans do want it. Not the Brook fight happens when I say it happens. That’s just disrespectful to the fans. You’ve got make the fight the fans want. When you have a chance to make a fight the fans demand, a fight that would go down in history, this fight, you make it. When there is a lot of money on the table, you make the fight. From a PR perspective, he’s disastrous. What the fans want is Brook-Khan. What surprised me is, I know it was an incredible fight, what has pleased me so much is the response to Brook-Spence. That’s actually a better fight [than Brook vs. Khan]. It’s a better fight. It’s a much better fight than Amir Khan, because it’s the unknown as well. We don’t know if Errol Spence is just very good or the next superstar of the sport. We know what Amir Khan is. He’s very good, he’s got fast hands, but he can be knocked out. There’s no blueprint to beat Amir Khan. You’ve got to aim for his chin, but he’s an excellent fighter as well. He [Khan] said, ‘go to America, fight Shawn Porter, beat him, then go fight [Gennady] Golovkin. Now go fight Errol Spence.’ He’s making a lot of excuses, isn’t he? What do we have to do to get the fight? Maybe after this fight, we’ll say, ‘See you later, mate. We’re going to fight the winner of [Danny] Garcia-Thurman.’ It’s not up to Amir Khan to tell Kell Brook what to do to get the fight. He went out and won a world title. He boxed Golovkin. Now he’s boxing Errol Spence. This is a much more high profile name [than Shawn Porter in 2014]. At the time, Porter was a decent name, but he didn’t have the same scare factor as Errol Spence has now. He fights Kevin Bizier, Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. It’s not the best of resumes. There’s a couple of reasons for that. Then he goes and fights Gennady Golovkin. Now he fights Errol Spence. He’s the one that chose the Errol Spence fight. I know he’s mandatory. We have plenty of options. Move up to 154 quite easily. He’s got every reason to do it a well. He wants to fight Errol Spence. He wants to give the fans what they want. He wants to be in fights where people say, ‘Wow, I love that fight,’” said Hearn.

In response to the question whether the Brook-Spence fight will be televised on Sky Box Office pay-per-view, Hearn said, “Yeah, to ring Spence over here, and to give Kell Brook what he deserves in this fight. Yeah, we are. Yeah, we’ve got the O2 [Arena in London as backup]. [Hearn will] probably [announce] it at the end of the week. The Truth against the Special One. Strap season,” said Hearn.