Hearn says Brook-Spence is a possibility

By Boxing News - 10/05/2016 - Comments

1-o2arena-golovkin-brook-58

By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t ruling out a fight between his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) and #1 IBF mandatory challenger Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in the near future once the 30-year-old Brook comes back from his broken right eye socket injury.

Hearn believes that Brook could make it back down to welterweight at 147, but he doesn’t believe that he’d be 100 percent at that weight due to him having a hard time making the 147lb limit. Hearn says that Brook’s next fight will be one of the following fighters: Spence, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Miguel Cotto or Amir Khan.

Obviously, if Hearn could get Canelo, Khan or Cotto for Brook, he would take that option over a dangerous fight against the southpaw Spence. There would be more money for Brook in those fights than for a Spence fight However, it’s unknown if Hearn will be able to get one of those top names for Brook. In that case, Brook might melt back down to 147 to fight Spence. Hearn says the revenue split for the fight with Spence would be 75/25 in Brook’s favor, as he’s the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion and Spence the challenger.

Errol Spence is a southpaw, so he would be landing left hands on Brook’s surgically repaired right eye all night long. I could see another injury occurring to Brook’s right eye. It might swell up on him and cause Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle to throw in the towel once again if the fight gets a little one-sided. I’d hate to see Ingle throw in the towel again. I have a feeling that Brook’s eye would swell up though, because Spence hits very, very hard, and the eye will be getting hit for the first time in combat since the surgery Without Ingle and Brook knowing if the eye has suffered another injury, I think they might quit at some point it there’s swelling for the eye.

We saw how Antonio Margarito’s eye swelled up in his first fight after eye surgery in his rematch against Cotto. The fight was then halted by the referee. In this case, I think Brook would start pawing at his eye, and stop throwing punches at Spence. I think Ingle would then throw in the towel again to save Brook. It would be ugly. I don’t think it would be a good career move if Ingle throws in the towel again, but I think that’s what would happen. Ultimately, I see Spence having too much power, too much talent and too much boxing skills for Brook to handle. As such, I see Ingle throwing in the towel to save Brook when the going gets tough. If I’m Brook, I would tell Ingle to resist throwing in the towel, because the last thing Brook needs is to have his trainer stopping his fights left and right each time he faces some adversity.

IBF chairman Lindsay Tucker said this week that the IBF will be ordering the Brook vs. Spence fight this month on October 26. The two fighter’s management will have 30 days to negotiate the fight before a purse bid will take place a month later. Brook can always vacate his IBF belt or he can let the IBF know that he needs more time to recover from his eye surgery on his broken right eye socket. The Tucker says the IBF will give Brook an extension. However, in remains to be seen whether Brook would want to tangle with the talented Spence. I mean, there’s no point in Brook being given an extension by the IBF if he has no real desire in sharing the ring with the 5’9” southpaw Spence.

This is a much different type of fighter than Brook has fought in the past at welterweight. Spence is a huge puncher with a great jab and knockout power in either hand. With the exception of Shawn Porter, Brook has fought largely weak opposition at welterweight during his pro career. Brook didn’t really even fight Porter. He just held him all night long and landed occasional pot shots from the outside. It was 12 rounds of spoiling by Brook.

Before Brook moved up to middleweight for his 5th round stoppage loss to Gennady Golovkin on September 10, Brook’s last three fights had come against Kevin Bizier, Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. Brook burned up two years of his career facing these weak welterweight opponents.

“At the moment we are keeping all our options open,” Hearn said to skysports.com about Brook. “Kell can make 147 but I don’t think he can necessarily reach the same performance levels.The Spence fight is a big fight for us, especially at 75/25 so it’s definitely something to take seriously.”

When Hearn says that he doesn’t think Brook can “reach the same performance levels at 147 if he moves back down in weight to defend his title against Spence, it suggest to me that Hearn is already coming up with an excuse in case Brook loses that fight or looks bad. If Brook gets smashed by Spence, he can always blame it on his struggles to make the 147lb limit.

It would be another excuse for Brook. We already heard the excuses for why Brook lost to Golovkin. Brook blamed it on him suffering an eye injury earlier in the fight in the 2nd or 3rd round. Brook’s loyal boxing fans blame his loss on the eye injury and the fact that he moved up two divisions to fight the best fighter in the 160lb division in Golovkin. So if Brook loses to Spence, the excuse will be that it was too hard to make the 147lb limit and that he was unable to “reach the same performance levels.” I imagine some of Brook’s fans will buy that excuse. But if Brook moves up to 154 and loses to Cotto or Canelo, what will be the excuse then? Will Hearn and Brook blame it on him not being acclimated to fighting in the 154lb division? Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the excuse.

Ideally, Brook should fight two or three times at junior middleweight so that he can get used to fighting at that weight BEFORE he faces Cotto or Canelo. Of course, if Brook does that, he wouldn’t have an excuse that he could use if he loses to Cotto or Canelo. He would have to admit that he lost to the better fighter. My guess if Brook would then say that he’s not cut out for 154 and that he’s a naturel welterweight. In other words, I see Brook using an excuse no matter what weight class he fights in. He can say he was weight drained if he loses to Spence at 147. Brook can say he wasn’t used to fighting at 154 if he loses to Canelo or Cotto. We already heard Brook’s excuses for why he lost to Golovkin at 160.

“The GGG fight has given Kell a number of high profile options but I think realistically his next opponent comes from Spence, Canelo, Cotto or Khan,” said Hearn.

Obviously, Brook’s next opponent will be from one of those following fighters: Canelo, Cotto, Khan or Spence. Brook already said that he only wants the big fights from now on. If Brook can’t get Canelo, Cotto or Khan, then Spence will be the last option and arguably the most dangerous for him. We’ve already see that Canelo, Khan and Cotto are flawed fighters. It’s only a matter of time before Canelo gets beaten again. He already lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and should have lost to Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout.

Cotto, 35, is just playing out his string and is on his way out of boxing after a long career. I doubt that Cotto has more than one or two more years left before retirement. Khan is coming off of a vicious knockout loss to Canelo. Before that fight, Khan hadn’t fought a quality opponent in four years since losing to Danny Garcia. Khan is more of a part time fighter at this point in his boxing career. Spence is arguably the most talented and the most dangerous of the options available for Brook, which is why I find it highly unlikely that Brook will fight him.

If Hearn can’t get Canelo, Cotto or Khan for Brook, I see them vacating the IBF title, and then taking on a soft job at 154 like the recently knocked out Liam Smith. That won’t be an easy fight for Brook, but it at least would be one that he could potentially win if Smith fights stupidly by backing up against the ropes over and over again like he did in his 9th round knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez on September 17 last month.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Brook loses to Smith. Brook doesn’t have a lot of punching power, and he’s not going to beat Smith by throwing pot shots and moving around the ring all night long. Brook would need to stand in the pocket and trade with smith for him to beat him, and I don’t think Brook could do that without wearing down and maybe getting hurt again.