By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s close to making a deal with American contender Errol Spence’s management for a fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. This is a move to avert a purse bid, which has now been moved from the original date of February 7 to February 14. If things go smoothly with the negotiations, we should see a deal made between Brook and Spence before February 14.
“We’ve asked for a week’s extension from the IBF because I feel we’re very close to making a deal,” said Brook’s promoter Hearn to skysports.com.
The timing for the Spence fight is clearly not ideal for Brook. He’s coming off of a busted right socket injury in his last fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10 in London, England. Brook had eye surgery to repair the injury and he’s said to be completely recovered. But with an injury like that, it’s impossible to know whether there will be any flare-ups when Brook gets inside the ring with the talented Spence and he starts getting hit on that eye.
You just don’t know how Brook’s eye will do when he gets hit directly on it by one of the southpaw Spence’s big left hands. I know Brook has great defensive skills, but he’s not going to pitch a shutout in this fight and get through it without being hit once by one of Spence rocket power shots. I would venture to guess that Brook will be hit many times on his surgically repaired right eye by Spence over the course of their bout.
It’s going to be a physical and mental thing for Brook when it comes to his eye.
– Mental stress: Will Brook stress out when getting hit to the head by Spence? Will Brook not have confidence in his ability to take Spence’s big power shots? If so, then we’re likely going to see Brook running all around the ring to keep from getting hit by Spence. Obviously, Brook isn’t going to beat Spence if all he does is run from him. Likewise, if Brook chooses to go back to his old playbook that he used for the Shawn Porter fight with him using nonstop clinching for 12 rounds, I can’t see him beating Spence. Brook got lucky in beating Porter with this grabbing and holding tactic in 2014 without being disqualified, but I don’t think it’s going to work against Spence, because he’ll have an entire camp to get ready for that. Brook has already shown his hand with that fight, so I think every fighter that faces him now are going to train for that potential tactic.
– Physical stress: Is there a possibility that Brooks surgically repaired eye might not hold up once Spence starts nailing him with incredibly hard punches to the head? You can’t rule it out. After all, Spence is the second hardest puncher that Brook will have ever fought during his career behind Golovkin. Spence’s power is no joke. If he starts nailing Brook with head shots, I wouldn’t be surprised if his eye starts giving him problems. The question is will Brook want to keep fighting hard for a full 12 rounds if his right eye starts giving him problems? I’d say that’s a big no. I don’t think Brook would want to continue fighting at all period once his eye starts giving him problems. As such, Spence will win the fight. It’s just too bad that Brook couldn’t vacate his IBF title and take some tune-up fights to test out his eye before he started facing the quality fighters like Spence.
Brook is fighting Spence at the wrong time for his career. Brook just went up in weight to 160 to fight Golovkin, and now he’s got to take the weight off, which won’t be easy for him to do. Further, Brook is coming off of a serious eye injury and he won’t be able to test the eye out against fodder opposition like he’d been facing before he fought Golovkin. I don’t think it’s going to end well for Brook when he gets inside the ring with Spence. I’m just saying.