Mayweather expects Spence to stop Kell Brook

By Boxing News - 03/03/2017 - Comments

Image: Mayweather expects Spence to stop Kell Brook

By Jeff Aranow: Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinks Kell Brook’s timing is bad with him having to face a very dangerous fighter in unbeaten Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) immediately after his grueling fight against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last September.

Brook lost that fight by a 5th round TKO, and he was injured with his right eye socket busting from a hard punch. Brook and Spence will be fighting on May 27, according to Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn. That fight will likely be at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. UK.

Mayweather sees Spence’s punching power as being very good. He should know, because he sparred with Spence years ago and got a chance to see how hard he hits.

“I think him and Kell Brook is a good match-up, but I don’t think it’s going the distance,” said Mayweather about Errol Spence to Fighthype.com. “I think Kell Brook took a lot of wear. It was a tough fight with him and Triple G. So I think having another tough fight. It’s not that fast, but having another tough fight right after the Triple G fight, it’s going to be tough. Errol Spence has punching power, said Mayweather.

Brook is confident that he’ll win the fight against Spence. Hearn is getting Brook the hometown advantage in staging the fight in Sheffield. We’ll have to see if Brook’s fans will be able to motivate him enough to carry him to victory. Spence hasn’t said anything yet about whether he’ll give Brook a rematch if he beats him. Spence would like to fight the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia fight in a unification match.

Thurman said this week that he doesn’t envision fighting the winner of the Brook-Spence fight for at least 2 years. It appears that Thurman wants to let the unification fight grow by letting it marinate in the same way that Mayweather let his fight against Manny Pacquiao grow by waiting 6 years before finally making it. By the time that Mayweather did fight Pacquiao, both guys were old, and clearly not the fighters they’d once were.

Brook hasn’t given any hint to the boxing fans what his strategy will be for him to try and get a victory over Spence. Brook won’t be able to use the same game plan that he used for the Golovkin fight. Moving constantly and throwing only occasional punches won’t help hm against a pressure fighter like Spence. He’ll go after Brook’s body with his punches and make it hard for him to move for 12 rounds. Brook may need to stand and fight Spence to have a chance of beating him.