Spence: Brook won’t be able to hold me

By Boxing News - 03/06/2017 - Comments

Image: Spence: Brook won’t be able to hold me

By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook is going to need to keep from holding too much in his fight against Errol Spence Jr. on May 20, because the 2012 U.S Olympian says he’s not going to let him do that. Spence says he’s going to step back each time Brook elects to try and grab him. Further, Spence is confident that the referee will do his job by addressing Brook’s excessive holding of him if he decides to play that card.

Brook used constant clinching to beat former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter by a 12 round decision in their fight in 2014. The referee that worked that fight didn’t step in to warn or take a point off from Brook for his frequent holding. As such, Brook held all night long without being disqualified. Each time Porter would get near Brook, he would be grabbed in a clinch.

Brook was also using the ‘punch and grab’ technique to grab Porter after he would throw one of his own shots. This is an old tactic that fighters use to get their own shots off, but then prevent their opponents from countering them. The referees are supposed to warn and penalize fighters for using this spoiling tactic, but they rarely do. It takes a good quality referee to do his job to make sure that fighters don’t game the system and turn the fights into MMA affairs rather than boxing matches.

Spence said this to Fighthype.com about Brook’s fight against Shawn Porter:

“He showed he had a good jab and a good 1-2,” said Spence about Kell Brook in his win over Porter. “His timing with his jab was on point. He was catching Shawn when he was coming in. He was holding too. He was showing his strength to hold Shawn. I think we have different styles. I’m not a guy that just jumps in there. I’ll work my way in with my jab and 1-2, and I can step back if someone tries to hold me,” said Spence.

Brook was diving forward with his clinches. It wasn’t always a case of Porter coming forward. Brook was like a torpedo with the way he was looking to hold. He was dashing forward to grab Porter a lot of the time. There was no way that Porter could avoid a lot of the clinches from Brook, because diving forward to hold. The only thing you can do to a fighter like that is nail him with shots or step back so that he’s grabbing air.

Porter made the mistake of allowing Brook to hold him without fighting his way out of the clinch. If you look at Gennady Golovkin, he didn’t just give up when Brook was initiating clinches. Golovkin was sticking his head into the face of Brook to make him pay for his holding. Golovkin was also throwing looping shots while Brook was holding. Golovkin’s punches were coming down onto the top of Brook’s head. Golovkin was smart the way he treated Brook’s holding.

“I don’t think he’ll be able to hold me, but if he does, hopefully the referee will intervene,” said Spence about

I wouldn’t count on the referee stopping Brook from holding if I were Spence. There’s a chance the referee will do his job and penalize Brook for excessive holding, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s able to clinch 10+ times per round without even being warned once. It would be smarter for Spence to try and neutralize Brook’s excessive clinching by either stepping back while he’s moving forward to hold him or simply sticking a jab in his face each time he tries to hold.

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