By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says right now it’s looking like it’s between 70 and 80 percent that his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) will be facing mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in his next fight.
Hearn says the decision will be made this Friday. He still wants Brook to vacate his IBF title and move up to 154, because he feels that it’s too hard for him to make the weight for the division, even though Spence has to take off the exact same amount of weight as Brook.
The difference is Spence doesn’t bellyache about how much pain he has to go through to make weight the way that Brook does. Does Hearn want Brook to move up in weight to 154 because he wants to safe him the pain and suffering that goes into taking off weight or does he believe that he can avoid a loss if he hides out at 154 while waiting for one of the big names at 147 to become available for a fight against him? One that thing that’s clear is that Brook will be moving back down to 147 in the future if he moves up to 154, because the big names – Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman – aren’t going to move up to 154 to fight him.
Brook will need to move down to 147. The only reason why Brook would be moving up to 154 right now would obviously be to avoid the Errol Spence Jr. fight. I don’t know why Hearn doesn’t just admit it and tells the boxing fans the real reason why he wants Brook to move up to 154. Hearn obviously still wants Brook to fight Pacquiao, Khan, Thurman and Garcia. He’s definitely going to have Brook move down from 154 to 147 to take those fights. So why then doesn’t Brook just stay at 147 now and take the Spence fight too?
The reason is obvious. Spence is just too good. He’ll likely beat Brook and beat him badly to the point where the fight will need to be stopped. That’s the way Gilfoid sees it. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle might need to throw the towel in again to save Brook once he stops defending himself and starts getting pummeled like he was in round five against Gennady Golovkin. That was the round in which Brook stopped fighting back after he got hit with a body shot. Some boxing fans think Brook mentally quit after getting hit with a right to the body from Golovkin.
“We’ve got a meeting on Friday and we will make our decision then. It looks like Errol Spence next. At this stage 70-80 per cent [likely],” said Hearn to skysports.com. “It’s a big fight, but it’s a tough fight. I just feel like why be in the fights that are as tough as that when you’re going to deplete yourself and take away some of your advantages.”
I’m sorry, but Hearn’s excuse about why he doesn’t want Brook to take the Spence fight doesn’t make any sense to me at all. It’s so transparent that it’s not even funny. Yeah, Brook will need to deplete himself to make weight to take the Spence fight, but he’s been doing it for the last 13 years in fighting at the 147lb division and using his size advantage to beat his smaller opposition.
Hearn wasn’t complaining about Brook’s size in the past when he was using it as an advantage to beat the mediocre fighters that he’s mostly been facing in the welterweight division. Hearn didn’t make a big production about Brook’s weight when he was defending his IBF title against Jo Jo Dan, Kevin Bizier and Frankie Gavin. Hearn didn’t have any problems about Brook fighting at 147 then. But all of a sudden when Brook is about to have to face a talented welterweight that could potentially beat him badly and knock him out in Spence, he’s starting to have qualms about him fighting in the 147lb division.
Believe me; Brook isn’t going to have things any better if he moves up to 154. Yeah, it’ll be easier for Brook to make the weight, but he’s not going to beat any of the good fighters in that division in my view. Of course, I don’t believe that’s what the point is in Brook moving up. I think it’s a foxhole for Brook to hideout from Spence while he waits for the big money cash out fights against Pacquiao, Thurman, Garcia and Khan to materialize.
I think Brook is cashing out with his career. I don’t think he’s even going to try and have a career at 154. I see Brook waiting on a big money fight against a top welterweight, and then retiring after he loses that fight. If he beats Khan, then he’ll wait on a big money fight against Garcia, Thurman or Pacquiao, and then retire after he loses to one of those fighters. That’s the way I see it.
Heck, I don’t think Brook could even beat Austin Trout at 154, let alone the talented fighters in that division like Erislandy Lara, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams and Demetrius Andrade. I can’t see Brook ever beating any of those fighters. I don’t think Brook could even beat Vanes Martirosyan, Willie Nelson, Tony Harrison, Jarrett Hurd, Erickson Lubin, Jorge Cota, Charles Hatley and Liam Smith.
“We’ve talked about it for three years. I just don’t think Amir wants the fight,” Hearn said. “I don’t think he wants to lose to Kell Brook and it’s a 50-50 fight.”
It’s interesting to see how desperate Hearn seems about the Khan fight for Brook now that he’s faced with Spence as his mandatory. Brook needs saving and Khan would be his lifeline, but he doesn’t want to save him. Khan is standing on the edge of a ship watching Brook paddle around with his career without him throwing a lifeline to save him from the shark-like Errol Spence, who is circling him and getting ready to have a nice meal.
It’s funny as heck to see how Hearn has lost his patience completely with Khan for him not wanting to throw Brook a lifeline. Khan is just doing what’s right for his own career. He was just knocked out by Saul Canelo Alvarez last May, and he had surgery on his right hand. Khan has told the boxing media and Hearn that he needs a tune-up fight in April in order to test out his hand to make sure it’s 100 percent. He doesn’t want to rush into the Brook fight without testing his hand, because the last thing he needs is for his hand to fall apart in such an important fight.
I don’t know why Hearn doesn’t understand that. Well, I actually do know why. Brook needs a lifeline to save him from Spence, and Khan isn’t willing to be that lifeline. Khan wants his fight against Brook to be as big as possible. He says that if Brook beats Spence, their fight will be that much bigger. Khan is right. If Brook can take Spence’s scalp, the U.S boxing fans will show interest in the Khan-Brook fight and want to see I in high numbers.
If the two guys were to fight right now, I don’t think the fight would interest the casual boxing fans in the U.S like it would if Brook beats Spence.
The problem that Brook has is he’s only beaten one good fighter during his entire career and that was Shawn Porter, who he held all night long in clinching his way to a very, very ugly win. To say that Brook should have been disqualified against Porter for holding is putting it lightly. If you look at the Brook-Porter fight and compare it to the Lennox Lewis vs. Henry Akinwande fight, which resulted in Akinwande being disqualified for excessive holding, there’s no difference in the holding that Brook and Akinwade did in my opinion. Akinwande got disqualified while Brook was allowed to clinch without being disqualified or penalized. Sadly, that was Brook’s only big win of his career. All the rest of the guys that Brook has fought in the welterweight division have been mediocre fighters or ones that are merely contenders.