By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook is nearing the moment of truth against unbeaten 2012 U.S Olympian Errol Spence Jr. The two welterweights will be facing each other next Saturday night on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. This will be the first time that Brook has attested his surgically repaired right eye in the heat of battle.
This will also be the first time that Spence has had to travel outside of his home country to fight in front of a large and likely unfriendly audience since he’s turned pro. There are a lot of unknowns going into the Brook-Spence fight. What we do know is the 27-year-old Spence is in a heck of a lot better position going into the fight at Bramall Lane than the 31-year-old Brook.
The advantages Spence has over Brook are these:
– Youth: Spence is 4 years younger than the 31-year-old Brook. Believe me, youth counts for a lot in sports, especially in boxing where you need speed and conditioning to do well.
– Weight: Brook has had to take off a lot of weight for Spence fight. Taking off the weight has left Brook looking thin in the way that a body builder does when he’s cutting up for a contest. Brook has had to go low carbohydrate during his training camp to cut the weight. That’s not good news for Brook because he appears to have lost muscle along with the fat. Brook made the mistake off putting on too much weight after his fight with Gennady Golovkin last September. That was dumb. Some fighters eat when they find an element of success. In Brook’s case, it seems to be a pattern for him to put on blubber in between fights. A fighter can only do that so many times without it hurting you and ultimately changing your career by forcing the fighter to move up in weight. Some fighters end up having to move up 2, 3 and even 4 divisions because they keep eating a lot in between fights. I have a feeling that Brook’s next stop will be 154 after next Saturday’s fight against Spence. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be final destination for Brook. I see him having to move up to 160 and then 168 before long. Needless to say, Brook won’t be successful at middleweight or super middleweight.
– Size: Spence is naturally taller than Brook with a longer reach. That size is going to help Spence win next Saturday night.
– Injuries: Brook is coming off a bad eye injury from his fight against Golovkin. Brook has had successful eye surgery, but he hasn’t tested his eye since the surgery. Spence is the wrong guy for Brook to be testing out his eye. My guess is Brook won’t be confident at all in his eye. I see Brook coming into the Spence fight with 60 percent confidence. I think Brook will need 110 percent confidence to win the fight against Spence. Unfortunately, he’ll be inadequate.
– Power: Spence has more power than Brook. That’s a given. Brook is more of an arm puncher, who picked up most of his 25 knockouts in his career when facing weak domestic level opposition instead of true world class fighters. Sorry, I consider Kevin Bizier, Jo Joe Dan and Frankie Gavin as being world class. Brook knocked those three out when they were highly ranked by the International Boxing Federation. It’s interesting that just 2 years later, Bizier, Dan and Gavin are nowhere to be seen in the top 15 rankings by ANY of the sanctioning bodies, not just the IBF. I never thought for a second that any of those fighters deserved to be rated in the top 15 by the IBF, let alone at No.1, which is where the IBF had Bizier and Dan ranked when Brook fought them. As such, Brook has a lot of knockouts, but not against quality opposition from the top tier.
– Speed: Spence is a little bit faster than Brook. Speed is overrated though. Even if Spence were slower than Brook, I still think he’ll beat him because he’s got the better size, youth, timing and talent. Brook is somewhat fast, but he throws mainly arm punches with his feet off the ground. I don’t know why but Brook has a nasty habit of not having his feet planted on the ground when he throws his shots. This takes away the power on Brook’s shots. To throw with more speed, Brook throws a lot of arm punches. Yeah, Brook can a little more speed in doing that, but it comes at a cost in lost power. Brook is going to need that power for him to have a chance against Spence next Saturday. If Brook goes to the cupboard looking for power on May 27, I think he’s going to find the cupboard is bare. Brook will need to make do with what little power he has.
“When he got to the hospital I think the doctor said that anymore punches on that and it could have been, not fatal, but it could have cost you your eye sight,” said Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle to skysports.com in talking about eye injury he suffered in the Golovkin fight.
What I don’t understand is why Brook and Ingle let the fight continue after Brook injured his right eye in round 1? I mean, if you’ve got a bad eye injury, wouldn’t have been better to stop the fight right then and there instead of letting the fight go another 4 rounds into the 5th? This is common sense stuff? If you’re badly injured, then shouldn’t continue to fight. Boxing is a sport. It’s not the ancient gladiators where they give their life to the country or the emperor.
I hope we don’t see a setback with Brook and his eye problem on Saturday. But if Brook does have some residual eye problems, then he needs to have the fight stopped at the earliest time rather than risking his eye site. I think it would be better for Brook if he pulls out of the contest at the earliest moment if his eye starts going on him. That’s the whole problem. With Brook not having tested his surgically repaired right eye in a tune-up fight against a 2nd tier fighter, he’s going into the Spence fight in a risky manner in fighting someone with major power and talent that could expose any lingering problems that Brook might have with the eye.
“It’s a common injury you have in car crashes, because your face hits the dashboard and cracks the bone in the front of your face,” said Ingle about Brook’s broken right eye socket.
That doesn’t sound good, does it? People that have been in car crashes don’t have their eye operated on and then go and fight Errol Spence Jr. 8 months later in front of a large horde of people at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. What Brook is doing in facing Spence is a risky thing. Brook may say his eye is fine, but we don’t know if it’s going to hold up once Spence starts nailing him with his monstrous shots. I’m going to be here saying, ‘I told you do.’ I think Brook should have taken 3 or 4 tune-up fights to make sure the eye will hold up.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if it [the eye socket] wasn’t fully healed,” said Brook to skysports.com in talking about his eye socket. “Of course it was on my mind when I started sparring but not for long. It’s fine.”
