By Jeff Aranow: Light welterweight champion Terence Crawford is favoring Errol Spence Jr. to beat IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook next month in their fight on May 27. Crawford doesn’t think it’s going to be an easy fight at all for the unbeaten Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) in their fight in Brook’s backyard at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.
Crawford believes it’s going to be a very tough fight for the 26-year-old Spence. He says that if Spence does blast Brook out in an easy fight, it would be a huge statement by him. Brook gave middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin big problems before needing to bow out in the 5th round because of an eye injury last September. Brook has a new titanium plate in his right eye socket, and it’s holding up well.
“This is a tough fight for both of them,” said Crawford to Fighthub.com about the Brook vs. Spence fight. “I’m leaning towards Spence, but it ain’t no walk in the park. A lot of people think Spence is going to go out and blast that dude out of the water. It’s going to be a tough fight. I see it as a tough fight. If he does blow him out of the water, that’s big,” said Crawford.
Spence will be sending a message to the boxing world by knocking out the 30-year-old Brook in front of his own boxing fans. Spence says is doesn’t matter that he’s fighting in front of Brook’s own fans. He sees a ring being a ring no matter what country the fight is taking place at. His goal is to look for “Man down” when he fights Brook. He’s not going to let the crowd try and sway the outcome of the fight. He was to go after Brook and take him out with power shots in the same way that Golovkin did in their fight last September.
Brook says he wouldn’t have been stopped if not for the injury, but it’s hard to know for sure if that’s the case because all we saw was Brook moving around the ring and taking shots in the last round of the fight. Brook had problems with Golovkin from round 1. Brook did well in the 2nd, but that was the last round where he excelled.
Spence and Crawford could face each other in the future after Crawford moves up to 147. It Crawford takes too much time before moving up to the welterweight division, then Spence could be gone by that point, because he’ll be moving up to 154 at some point when he outgrows the division in the future. Whether Spence and Crawford ever face each other could fall on Top Rank. They promote Crawford. If they decide they don’t want to work with Spence’s promoters and management, then we probably won’ ever see Spence fight Crawford. There’s no interest from Top Rank in matching their fighter Manny Pacquiao with Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia despite them being popular fighters.
“My game plan is to look impressive and to try for the knockout,” said Spence. “All my fights, I look for the KO. Kell Brook fights with a lot of heart. Triple G is a good fighter, and he just pressed him out. I’m a big guy too. They say he walks around in the 70s,” said Spence about Brook. “I walk around in the 70s too. I’m not a small guy either, and I’m very physical too, so it’ll be entertaining,” said Spence.
This is going to be a fight in which Brook is going to be facing an opponent the same weight as him in Spence. Brook is often the bigger guy in his fights. He might not be in this fight. Spence is as heavy as Golovkin, but not quite as tall. Spence has a longer reach than Golovkin and Brook by 3 inches. That means that Spence could dominate the fight on the outside if he wants to use his jab. He probably won’t.
Spence normally likes to take the fight to the inside with body punching. Brook will be able to hit him when he does this, but he’s still going to need to block his hard body shots. Spence is going to land a fair share of those punches unless Brook can get him out of there quickly. Brook isn’t as big a puncher as some people think he is. Brook is capable of knocking guys out, but it takes him a lot of rounds to do it.
“The mindset is to stay focused,” said Spence. “We’re not going to do anything out of character. We’re going to stick with whatever game plan we come up with in the camp and we’re going to execute. It is what it is, fighting over here or over there. I always go for the ‘Man down,’ so we’ll see. Hopefully, we’ll unify the belts and get an undisputed champion. I’m not thinking about the eye. I’m thinking body, head, shoulders, arms, ribs, whatever; I’m not worried about it at all,” said Spence about Brook.
Spence is wise to be thinking about landing to whatever part of his body he can hit, because it’s not going to be easy to land to the head of Brook. He uses a lot of head movement, making him difficult to hit upstairs.
“I think it’s a great fight,” said Berto to Fighthype.com about the Brook-Spence fight. “A lot of people are hyping Errol, as they should. He’s a good, young fighter. It’s his time. What I’m hearing is he’s not a fluke at all. He trains his [expletive] off. He’s an animal. This is going to be his first real test. It’s going to be interesting to see what he does with Brook. I don’t think Brook is one to look over at all. Right now, Errol Spence is feeling invincible. He’s going against all odds. I talked to him, and he’s feeling none of that pressure. Kell Brook is definitely not an easy talk. He knows his career kind of hangs on this fight, and it’s going to be in his hometown in front of his people,” said Berto about Brook. “So bet he’s going to come prepared.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he wants to see Spence and Keith Thurman face each other. However, Thurman has shown no interest in making the fight with Spence. He wants to wait until later on when he’s more popular.
“I wonder why Keith Thurman is ducking Errol Spence,” said Floyd Mayweather Jr. to esnewsreporting.com.