Berto: I want Kell Brook to fight Errol Spence

By Boxing News - 04/25/2016 - Comments

1-Spence v Algieri_Fight_Ryan Greene _ Premier Boxing Champions8By Scott Gilfoid: Andre Berto says he wants to see if IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) is for real or not by him taking on the challenge that was made to him by the talented #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) after his 5th round knockout win over Chris Algieri on April 16 of his month in New York. Spence immediately called Brook out for a fight.

Brook, 29, has shown no indication that he’ll be taking the 26-year-old Spence up on his offer. Brook says he wants a big named opponent for a stadium fight in the summer. However, the name that is being mentioned as Brook’s next opponent Lamont Peterson, the former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (34-3-1, 17 KOs). He’s lost 2 out of his last 5 fights. Some stadium fight that’ll be.

“I’ve seen him [Brook] fight two or three times. I believe he’s a good fighter,” says Berto about Kell Brook to IFL TV. “I really want to see if he’s going to take Errol Spence up on his offer, especially with the last his fight show and prove he belongs there.”

Berto and the entire wants to see if Brook will step it up and take the Spence fight, but I doubt that Brook will take the fight. When you hear Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn talking about him taking two more fights at welterweight and then moving up to 154 to campaign as a junior middleweight, that works out to where Brook will be giving up his IBF title after his next two voluntary defenses.

If Brook didn’t give up his IBF title, he’d be forced to fight Spence, and a fight like that could result in Brook getting whipped and losing his IBF title by knockout. In this sport, if you get knocked out, it frequently causes fans to abandon ship like rats leaping off a sinking ship.

I don’t know if Brook’s fans would abandon him if he gets knocked to smithereens by Errol Spence but there’s definitely a possibility. I’m just saying. I wouldn’t want to be Brook if I were fighting Spence because the show could end for Brook. I mean, he’d have a heck of a hard time making a case that he deserves a big money fight against Amir Khan.

How do you sell tickets to fans for a stadium fight between those two fighters if Brook gets knocked out by Spence? As such, I see Brook avoiding Spence like the plague until Brook vacates his IBF 147lb title and moves up to the safety of the junior middleweight division, where he’ll almost surely target WBO champion Liam Smith. Speaking of Smith, he wants a fight against Brook this year, not if/when Brook scrams from the 147lb division. Smith doesn’t believe that Brook is going to have a big stadium fight this year. He sees that as little more than a pipe dream on Brook’s part.

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“We all know Kell’s not getting a big fight in the summer. There’s talk of him fighting Lamont Peterson but I don’t think you can talk about dominating at 147 and 154 and then fight Peterson who’s a 140 fighter,” said Smith to the liverpoolecho.co.uk. “If you’re going to talk about it, then go and do it. If he wants, as he puts it, an easy fight at 154, then come and make me an offer.”

Smith is in the U.S helping Amir Khan get ready for his May 7 fight against WBC middleweight champion in Las Vegas, Nevada. Smith plans on fighting in the summer and then later on twice more. If he can get Brook in one of those fights, he’d be more than happy.

Brook might as well take the fight against Spence this summer because that’s the only big name I see him having a chance of getting right now. Besides, Spence is considered way more talented than the guys that Brook is pining away for in Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia and Tim Bradley.

I see Spence easily beating all three of those guys if he were to ever fight them. Since I don’t see Brook ever getting any of those guys to fight him, he needs to take the fight with Spence and just hope for the best. If he gets beaten, then he can tell the public that he lost to the best fighter in the welterweight division. Maybe the fans would give him a break like they did with Canelo when he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.