Spence Is Up For A Rude Awakening Fighting Brooks

By Boxing News - 03/23/2017 - Comments

Image: Spence Is Up For A Rude Awakening Fighting Brooks

By Jaime Ortega: After the heated first press conference, Kell Brook and Errol Spence Jr. will make a great action packed fight filled with drama. A lot of casual fans assume the press conference is a decisive teller of the prognostics of the fight, they also assume Brook was somehow shocked after Spence reputedly mocked his resume and became the aggressor during the conference; in truth the ring will tell us fans who has the upper hand, since it’s a hard fight to predict.

This fight is a 50-50 fight as I will explain bellow. Both fighters present different pros and cons coming into the fight. Anyone who thinks Brook is the underdog in this fight is misguided and doesn’t really understand how boxing works and the mechanics used inside the ring.

I predicted the outcome of many fights but it is harder to predict unknowns. The hardest fighters to predict are the Srisraket Sor Rungvisai’s and the Julius Indongo’s – foreign boxers who don’t have a reputed name, but after a solid performance in the big stage, shock the world after a great fight night against a world class opponent. In the welterweight division Tewa Kiram, Kerman Lajarra and Jeff Horn remain truly unknowns and unpredictable boxers.

When I first saw Spence was in the Olympics in London. He did well against all his opponents till he faced other elite jabbers – Andrey Zamkovoy and Serik Sapiyev ended his Olympic run in two very close fights. It was obvious the Jab was not Errol-friendly and his defense was questionable. He progressed as a fighter after he joined the Mayweather Gym. Spence is now facing Brook, one of the best jabbers in the world. Spence is a natural born killer akin Manny Pacquiao in many different aspects, they both are aggressive, and throw their hands and trade punches in bunches; perhaps Errol is more like prime Pacquiao, a knockout artist.

Spence is a pressure fighter who blends brawls with crisp counters. He loves to come forward and utilize his reach and jab to set up the power shots. He aims for the body and the chin throwing vicious punches. He is not flatfooted but he doesn’t need to move his feet much because as the taller boxer – similar to what we saw with Paul Williams during his stellar career – his reach allows him to watchtower his opponent’s vision. Spence throws more punches when he trades than most of his opponents, confident they will land on target. He is quick and his timing is also excellent, but has one major flaw he needs to immediately correct. When Spence gets occasionally reckless, he stays to trade in a fixed position and hardly moves his head out of trouble. Just like when Juan Manuel Marquez knocked the ghost out of Pacquiao with that brutal KO, someone will eventually land a vicious counter on Spence’s chin that will put him asleep, if he continually keeps throwing his hands without moving his head.

Brook is a counter fighter who fights backwards and brawls. He has excellent timing and speed. He knows how to set traps moving backwards and knows how to utilize the art of clinching, an art that stops the gushes of boxers who have a few winning streaks within the rounds – very frustrating. The master of all masters was Gene Fulmer, who beat Sugar Ray Robinson twice. He also arguably has the best jab in the welterweight division. One good attribute is Brook knows how to fight on the inside and remains cautious with his punches; most American fans won’t like to amid it, but Brook is a very well rounded boxer overall and he is not careless – there is nothing in Brook’s style that needs further enhancement. Brook was able to wall-off Shawn Porter’s onslaughts and guard his chin more successfully than Keith Thurman. Brook is very disciplined and composed. His fight with Gennady Golovkin was tricky and uncharacteristic – even if Golovkin lands a punch in the arm, it will momentarily stun any opponent. As the aggressor Daniel Jacobs was afraid of Golovkin’s power for a good reason and instead of finishing his last good rounds, he never went for the kill, giving the Kazakh the win.

Spence told Brook in the faceoff to “stand in the middle and trade with him.” – He clearly meant it, and is not a good idea for Spence! As I stated, Spence like Pacquiao is reckless and loves to trade believing the volume of power punches will outmaneuver his opponent’s punches; if he trades with Brook he will frequently get clipped with speed and power. Brook went toe to toe with Golovkin during the tradeoffs and landed enough punches to hurt anyone in the welterweight division – just not Golovkin. Spence will get punished by Brook, and remains unknown how his chin will hold on. Brook will surely clinch Spence as he did with Porter, and he will try to breakdown the pace and aggression of the American. Spence will try to chop Brook down and impose his jab over Brook’s jab. Brook does quite well defending with his high elbow guard and won’t be easy to infiltrate. Brook will wait to counter Spence and land body shots to break him down also. The few boxers who decided to exchange with Spence were successful in landing shots, and despite losing, they didn’t present the caliber of Brook.

I am telling the readers now, Spence is not Floyd Mayweather Jr. he doesn’t have his defensive virtue; Spence will lose sooner or later, his fighting style while effective offensively is filled with cracks only elite power punchers can expose. Floyd avoided confrontation and unnecessary risk avoiding tradeoffs; on the other hand, Spence loves to exchange in the mouth of the Lion and release his devastating punches.

On May 27th the truth will remain. Brook remains an undefeated welterweight and he is absolutely right when he said “He hasn’t fought anybody, not even close like me.” Spence will have to use an uncharacteristic game plan to defeat Brook, he can’t get reckless against a power puncher like Brook or he will severely pay the consequences. The key will be the exchanges, the fight won’t go to distance and a brave Brook is not exactly what Spence should hope for in what truly is a 50-50 fight. It only takes one crisp land to the chin and the hype is over.