By Scott Gilfoid: Dewey Cooper, the trainer for WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas, believes that unbeaten #1 IBF 147lb contender Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 Kos) will beat IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) if/when the two of them wind up facing each other in the near future. Cooper believes that Brook quit in his 5th round knockout loss to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 32 KOs) in their fight on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Cooper suspects that once the going gets tough against Spence, Brook will revert to form and quit once against mentally. Spence will then win the fight by knockout to take Brook’s IBF title.
“I’ve got to go with Spence on that one,” said Cooper to esnewsreporting.com. “I’m not sure about that heart. I think Spence is going to try and take him deep. I think once a fighter quits the way he did against Gennady. I don’t care about the two weight classes. If you have quit in you, it’ll come back when you’re in duress. So I’ve got to go with Spence.”
Cooper makes a good point in bringing up Brook’s heart, because it did look like he mentally quit after the 4th round. In between rounds, Brook had his head covered in a towel, and he was looking at the camera people in between the cracks in the towel while he trainer Dominic Ingle appeared to be trying to give him a pep talk.
Once the 5th round started, Brook looked like he wanted no part of fighting Golovkin, as he moved around the ring trying to avoid the Kazakhstan fighter. Finally, Brook stopped moving and dropped his gloves after taking a hard body shot from Golovkin. From that point on, Brook just took shots from Golovkin without answering back with any of his own, and he used the ropes as a walking cane. Brook was no longer even trying to fight. It looked like he had mentally quit in the fight. To be sure, it was later learned that Brook had a broken right eye socket, but that doesn’t explain why he stopped throwing punches in the 5th. It also doesn’t explain why Brook mostly ran from the 3rd round when Golovkin started putting heavy pressure on him. Brook only stood and fought in the 2nd round. In round 1, 3, 4 and 5, Brook was in full retreat and not trying to fight back in any real way.
The International Boxing Federation plans on ordering the negotiations to start between Spence and Brook on October 26 of this month. Brook can do one of a number of things when that happens. Brook can vacate his IBF title to avoid Spence, or he can ask for more time by telling the IBF that his eye is injured. Brook has said that he’s thinking about moving up to 154 if he can get a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez or Miguel Cotto. However, it’s still too early to know if Brook will be able to get either of those guys when he first comes back from his injury. Brook’s title defense against Spence is due, so he can’t ask the IBF to let him take another voluntary defense, because he just used up a fight by moving up to middleweight to fight Golovkin.
Brook says he’s still not decided whether he’ll give up his IBF title. You can understand why. Brook may not ever win another world title again, so it would be a shame to see him vacate his IBF title without a fight. If Brook can at least defend his IBF title against Spence, he might win if fights at a high level. Brook might lose though. If Brook can’t handle the adversity that he’ll be under against Spence, then he could get knocked out again.
Brook received a pass from the boxing world for losing to Golovkin, because he suffered an eye injury. He also received a pass from the fans because he moved up two divisions to take on Golovkin at middleweight without a catchweight. But if Brook loses to Spence, then there could be no excuses that would work for him. If Brook blames the loss on another injury, boxing fans will see him as excuse maker. If Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle throws in the towel to save him when the going gets tough, then he’ll be seen as weak by a lot of fans. Brook has got to be able to fight through adversity without the towel being thrown in to save him each time he starts getting worked over by his opponents.
It’s hard for me to picture Brook dealing with the heavy pressure and powerful punches from a fighter like Spence. Spence hits too hard, and he cuts off the ring too well for Brook to go the full 12 rounds. I don’t believe it would matter if the fight were to take place in London, England, where Brook would have the hometown advantage. I still think Spence would break Brook down and cause him to mentally quit by dropping his gloves in a signal of surrender. Once that happens, I see Ingle tossing in the towel as if on cue. Ingle isn’t going to let his fighter Brook get pummeled by Spence if he drops his gloves the same way he did against Golovkin in the 5th round when he stopped fighting back. Brook looked like he made a conscious decision to quit. Ingle did the only thing he could do in throwing in the towel.
