By Scott Gilfoid: Abel Sanchez, the trainer for middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, is picking IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook to defeat Errol Spence Jr. on May 27. Sanchez thinks the 27-year-old Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs0 is taking the fight too soon in his career against the 30-year-old Brook, who he feels is much more experienced in terms of big fights. Brook has been involved in 2 big fights in his career against Golovkin and Shawn Porter.
The rest of the guys Brook has fought have been fighters like Jo Jo Dan, Kevin Bizier and Frankie Gavin. So, Sanchez sees Brook as old veteran with tons of experience. I’m not sure that I agree with Sanchez, but that’s what he thinks. Sanchez wants Spence to essentially wait another year until he’s 28 to fight for a world title. Brook won the IBF title at 27.
Just why Sanchez wants Spence to wait until he’s almost 30 to fight for a world title is the big question. Is it because Spence might do a better job of beating Brook compared to Golovkin? We saw how Golovkin struggled at times with Brook last September, mostly because he was fighting a sloppy fight and not being smart in the ring. Golovkin didn’t throw any body shots to speak of until the 5th.
“I said to you in the past that Errol Spence will be one of the best welterweights in the world,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez to Dontae’s Boxing Nation. “He’s one of my favorite prospects. I think this fight is too soon for him. I think Errol Spence is a Terry Norris kind of fighter. Terry Norris fought Julian Jackson too soon. He was only 23-years-old. But Errol Spence, I think it’s a little too early for him. He’s going to be a great fighter. He has a lot of athleticism, speed, and he has a little power. But I think it’s too early, and he’s fighting an old veteran. He’s fighting a veteran who has been through some very tough fights that knows what it’s like to be in a tough fight,” said Sanchez.
I think it’s no secret that if Spence beats Brook in a dominating fashion, Golovkins stock is going to drop like a rock. Is that why Sanchez doesn’t want Spence to fight Brook right now? If Spence beats Brook in a better fashion than Golovkin did, it’s going to cause a lot of boxing fans to question that talent level of Triple G. What better way to avoid that from happening than by saying that Spence is taking the Brook fight too soon.
The main thing that Sanchez is missing is the fact that Spence is fighting Brook in his own hometown of Sheffield at Bramall Lane. If Spence is going to lose the fight, it might be because of him potentially losing a hometown decision. We saw the oddball scoring from the Golovkin vs. Brook fight where one judge had it scored 3 rounds to 1 in favor of Brook after 4 rounds and the other two judges had it 2 rounds a piece. Spence might find himself in the same position where he has the judges giving Brook round after round despite him being the one that’s taking punishment and getting blasted around the ring.
Kell Brook is not Julian Jackson. Yeah, former welterweight champion Terry Norris moved up in weight to fight Julian Jackson at junior middleweight, but it was a different situation than the one Spence will be dealing with in fighting Brook. Spence has a longer reach by 5 inches than Norris, and he’s not fighting Jackson. He’s fighting Brook, who isn’t a huge puncher with one-punch power like Jackson. If Spence was fighting Jackson, he would likely stay on the outside and jab him all night long. Against Brook, Spence is going to be able to jump on him from the 1st round and hammer him with body shots. Sanchez says Spence has a “little power”, and I think that’s wrong. Spence has a lot of power. His 18 knockouts on his resume shows you the kind of power he has.
I don’t agree that Spence should wait until 2 or 3 more fights from now to fight Brook. That sounds stupid. Floyd Mayweather Jr. became a world champion at 22-years-old, and Brook was a champion at 27. By Sanchez saying that Spence should wait until he’s essentially 28, it seems he doesn’t rate him highly. Waiting until Spence is almost 30 before fighting for a world title just seems like a too conservative approach by Sanchez. I’m not surprised though, because he had Golovkin fighting in a very conservative manner in his last fight against Daniel Jacobs on March 18 of this month by focusing on his boxing rather than on going after him to try and knock him out.
If Golovkin had gone all out like he normally does, he probably would have knocked Jacobs out in 1 or 2 rounds. I don’t see any point in Spence waiting another year before fighting Brook. If Spence were to listen to Sanchez, he would not only miss out on his title shot against Brook, he would likely lose another year beyond that, because the IBF isn’t going to keep his at No.1 if he turns down the fight with Brook. They would likely drop Spence from the top spot and have someone else fight Brook. Spence would then have to restart the process of working his way to the No.1 spot, because he’s not going to be given a title shot by one of the champions when they’re making a voluntary defense of their titles.
Spence is too good for him to get a title shot by a champion making a voluntary defense. If Spence were to listen to Sanchez, he might lose 2 years of his career waiting for a title shot. Spence would be nearly 30 by the time he finally gets a title shot. That would be bad news for Spence’s boxing career. Spence was good enough to fight for a world title the moment he turned pro. Having to wait 4 years just to fight for a title has been wasted years in my opinion for Spence.
“Errol hasn’t been in a 12 round tough fight. I don’t think it’s 50-50.,” said Sanchez. “I think it’s 52-48. Let me put it this way. Errol still has a chance, but if he had waited; unfortunately in this business, it’s such a business that, when you’re given an opportunity like Errol got, he’s not going to turn it down. It’s crazy to turn it down. But I would have liked for him to have waited 2 or 3 more fights. A couple 2 or 3 more training camps at the level that he’s training right now would have been fantastic for him,” said Sanchez.
I think Spence is fighting Brook at least 4 years past the time that he could have fought him. I think Spence would have beaten the brakes off of Brook even when he was an amateur. Spence is just a much better fighter. I think it would be insane for Spence to listen to Sanchez and wait for another year just he feels better about the fight. The only thing that Spence would be doing by waiting another year before fighting Brook would be him shooting himself in the foot career-wise, because it wouldn’t be just 1 more year. It would likely end up being 2 years before Spence is ranked back at No1 with the IBF. If you turn down a title shot, the IBF would likely drop Spence in their ratings. While I’d like to think that Brook would give Spence a title shot in a voluntary defense, I don’t think that would ever happen. Brook would fight other guys like Frankie Gavin for his voluntary defenses rather than someone dangerous like Spence. Even after Spence become Brook’s mandatory challenger, we saw how Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn dragged their feet before taking the fight.
“I’m going with ‘The Truth,’ Mr. Errol Spence,” said Jeff Mayweather to Mayweather’s Boxing Channel in his pick for Spence to beat Brook on May 27. “I think he’s the next coming of the guy at welterweight. The only guy that I think has a chance against him is a guy that’s not even in the division and that’s Terence Crawford. Errol is very technically sound. He’s kind of like Donald Curry to me. He’s a complete fighter and balanced all the way around in boxing. The fight with Kell Brook is going to be a little tougher. I think he’ll win a decision, but I think it’ll be a unanimous decision and I think it’ll be very one-sided. I think this will be the toughest person in his career in Kell Brook. I think he’s going to have to work hard early on. He can’t make the fight close because he’s in England. He’s probably the most balanced fighter in there right now, and that’s why I say he’s going to be the face of the welterweight division because he’s technically sound, good defense, good speed and real economical with his punches. He’s already fighting like a mature veteran,” said Jeff Mayweather about Spence.