By Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t like Kell Brook’s chances of beating unbeaten Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. in their fight on May 27 next month. Mayweather says the fight won’t go the distance, as Brook is going to be stopped by the hard hitting Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in their fight at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.
Mayweather thinks it’s a step too far for the 30-year-old Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) in getting back into the ring to fight a tough opponent like Spence after the punishment that he absorbed in his knockout defeat against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10 last year.
Mayweather is concerned about the punishment that Brook took from GGG in that fight. Brook’s right eye socket was broken by a big left hook from Golovkin. Brook had surgery on the problem, but we don’t know yet what the residual effects of the injury will be. Will the eye socket hold together under the brutal power or Spence’s power shots or will shatter upon impact from one of “The Truth’s punches on May 27?
“I think him and Kell Brook is a good match-up, but I don’t think it’s going the distance,” said Mayweather via Shady Slim about the Brook vs. Spence fight on May 27. “I think Kell took a lot of wear. It was a tough fight for him against Triple G. So I think him hopping into another tough battle that fast, hopping into another tough fight like that right after the triple G fight is going to be rough,” said Mayweather.
I hope Brook doesn’t end up sorry for deciding to take the fight with Spence. If Brook’s surgically repaired eye starts giving him problems in the fight, he could be helpless in there. Brook was saying that he couldn’t see clearly out of his damaged eye after it was injured in the Golovkin fight. If Spence is able to land some big shots on the eye, Brook might start having a tough time seeing clearly.
Is Brook crazy in jumping straight into another grueling fight with Spence right after the GGG fight? I think it was a questionable move on Brook’s part to take the Spence fight. Maybe Brook is just stubborn. He probably didn’t want to have to deal with all the negative feedback he would have had to hear from the boxing fans if he had vacated his IBF title to save his own hide. There’s no shame in ducking a fight if you know you can’t win it.
Yeah, I agree with Mayweather. Going from the brutal beat down Brook suffered against Triple G into another fight against a talent like Spence; it could be bad news for Brook. I’m just saying. I know Brook is bragging about how his new right eye socket is made out of titanium and how his doctor said it’s stronger than the original socket, but still it’s not good to start having parts of your body replaced before you’re about to face one of the biggest punchers in the 147lb division in Spence.
What’s going to happen to Brook when Spence starts landing his right hands directly on his surgically repaired right eye? Brook didn’t even take a tune-up fight to make sure his eye won’t fall apart on him the first time it gets hit. At least if it’s a tune-up, there would be less risk involved for Brook if he got hit on his eye by a lighter puncher than Spence.
Mayweather knows boxing pretty well. If he’s saying that Brook is going to be knocked out by Spence, then I have to believe him. Brook has been saying that his boxing fans at Bramall Lane will energize him for the Spence fight to get him across the finish line. I don’t know if it works like that when you’ve got a tricky eye like Brook’s.
The boxing fans can yap all they want, but they’re not going to be able to keep Brook’s eye socket from shattering once again when Spence lands a really hard shot on it. The fans aren’t going to be able to hold Brook’s eye together when Spence starts nailing him directly on it. To Spence’s credit, he says he’s not going to directly target Brook’s eye, but how does he not him on the eye. When Spence starts tagging Brook with big right hand shots and left hooks, he’s going to make contact, and it could be bad for him.
Joshua talks about being a sparring partner for Wladimir Klitschko
It wasn’t took long ago that Anthony Joshua was a humble sparring partner for former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in getting him ready for his fight against Kubrat Pulev in 2014. Wladimir got to know Joshua and he learned a lot obviously in how he fights, and the different tendencies he has in his fighting style. Wladimir (64-4, 53 KOs) is now in the position where he’s no longer the champion, and he’ll be fighting Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) for his IBF heavyweight crown, as well as the vacant WBA title on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Wladimir will be looking to use what he learned about Joshua when he gets inside the ring with him in their fight that will be televised by Sky Box Office pay-per-view in the UK, and HBO and Showtime Championship Boxing in the U.S.
“I was a student preparing Klitschko for his fight against [Kubrat] Pulev. That was it,” said Joshua to skysports.com. ”There was no other reason I was in that ring, plus to learn how a champion sets up camp. Competing, it’s different. There are no two ways about it. As I’ve said, even brothers fight. Cousins fight. Sometimes it can get heated. We will fight and compete, push and shove, try and hit harder. That’s just how it’s going to get down on April 29. There’s no secret to it.”
The real question is how much did Wladimir learn about Joshua’s fighting style/weaknesses from their sparring sessions? Wladimir had to have learned something for him to want to fight Joshua so bad. If Wladimir didn’t like his chances of beating Joshua, he sure as heck wouldn’t be targeting him. Wladimir could have gone after the WBO title held by Joseph Parker. That would have been a logical choice for Wladimir to take if he didn’t like his chances of beating Joshua. Wladimir saw something in Joshuas stle that he thinks he can capitalize on again and again in a real fight. My guess is Wadimir was able to out-jab Joshua and nail him with right hands and left hooks whenever he wanted to.
I don’t know if it is much different from sparring a fighter and fighting him in a real fight. If you’re not good enough to handle a fighter in a sparring session, then it’s probably a good sign that you’re not going to beat that fighter in a real live boxing match without the head gear and the shortened rounds.
“I’m obsessed with my goal to raise my hands after the fight and leave the ring as the winner,” said Wladimir to sysports.com.
Wladimir sure does look obsessed about beating Joshua and winning back his IBF and WBA heavyweight titles. When the two fighters took part in the “Gloves are Off’ special, Wladimir was really glaring at Joshua in a sign that suggested that he wants to punch his lights out in their fight on April 29.