By Jeff Aranow: The promoters and management for unbeaten #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) and #3 IBF Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KOs) haven’t been able to come to an agreement for an IBF welterweight eliminator bout to decide on the mandatory challenger to IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs).
The International Boxing Federation will be having a purse bid next week on May 17 if Spence and Ponomarev’s management haven’t worked out a deal by then. Spence is managed by Al Haymon and Ponomarev is promoted by Top Rank.
Brook, 30, won’t have to face the winner of that fight until 2017, because he’s coming off a victory over his last IBF mandatory Kevin Bizier last March in an easy 2nd round knockout.
Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently said that Spence’s management wasn’t ready to have Spence fight Brook yet.
Whether this is true or not is unclear. What is clear is that once Spence beats Ponomarev, he’ll be the IBF mandatory challenger and he’ll then be expected to fight Brook in the near future. Spence is not going to go through the trouble to defeat the little known Ponomarev unless he’s interested in fighting Brook for his IBF welterweight title.
Ponamarev, 23, isn’t much of a puncher and is seen by some as a weak duplicate of Chris Algieri, a fighter that Spence recently stopped in five rounds last April in a one-sided contest. Ponomarev’s promoters are really high on the kid, as he looked good recently in beating the previously undefeated Brad Solomon by a 10 round split decision last April on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley on HBO PPV. Before that fight, Ponomarev had an eight round majority decision win over Ramses Agaton last year in November. Ponomarev also has wins over Mikael Zewski and Steve Claggett. Those are two good solid B-level fighters. Ponomarev edged Claggett by a narrow eight round decision and easily beat Zewski.
Ponomarev’s lack of punching power will put him at a huge disadvantage against Spence though, because he’s not someone you’re going to be able to beat by a narrow decision because he’s going to be all over you. If Ponomarev can’t find the punching power to compete against Spence, then he’s going to get stopped fairly early. Ponomarev has nothing to keep a puncher like Spence off him for any length of time.