Kell Brook currently at 148 lbs.

By Boxing News - 05/23/2017 - Comments

Image: Kell Brook currently at 148 lbs.

By Scott Gilfoid: With three days to go before Friday’s weigh-in, Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) is already at 148 pounds and looking surprisingly good for his title defense against Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. On Brook’s Twitter, he was seen weighing in. They then announced the weight as 148 pounds and 2 ounces.

That leaves Brook only a little over 1 pound to go for this Friday’s weigh-in. As such, it appears that Brook will be making weight for the fight. The good news about Brook making weight is it will take away at least one potential excuse for him if he happens to lose the fight. Brook can’t blame a loss to Spence on his weight, because he’s clearly going to make weight. Brook looks strong right now and he’s bragging about how he’s going to make the weight.

(Photo credit: Lawrence Lustig/Matchroom Sport)

Brook making weight doesn’t mean win the fight. Brook is still got HUGE problems in store for him with Spence. We are taking about a young talent that might be the best welterweight the division has seen since Floyd Mayweather Jr. ruled the weight class. Spence might even be better than Mayweather could ever hope to be. We all heard about how a young Spence gave Mayweather all he could handle in a sparring session that took place 5 years ago in 2012.

Can you imagine what Spence would do to the 40-year-old Mayweather if the two fought each other now? Spence is only 22 when sparred Mayweather. He’s now 27 and approaching the prime of his career. Spence is like a runaway freight train and Kell Brook is standing in his path. It’s definitely not good for Brook, especially with him having lost a bunch of weight in training camp to get down to 147. Brook’s training camp has been a glorified fat farm during portions of it, because he put so much weight on after he lost to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.

”Kell just has to go out there and impose himself immediately on Errol Spence, not let him get into any kind of flow or rhythm,” said former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew to skysports.com. “Kell will thrive on the pressure, he loves high-pressure fights and seems to perform at his very best when he is under pressure. I don’t think it will be an issue for Kell – he’s a confident young lad, knows how to fight going forwards and backwards.”

I don’t think Bellew understands how Brook fights. In Brook’s fights against the only 2 good fighters he’s faced during his career, he’s been more defensive than offensive. I’m talking about Brook’s fights against Shawn Porter and Golovkin. In both of those fights, Brook was doing a lot of spoiling with him holding and moving. Brook wasn’t looking to “impose himself” on Golovkin and Porter.

It was more spoiling tactics from Brook with him using the hit, run and hold approach to both of those fights. It would be a miracle if Brook changed his stripes and came out looking to impose his will against Spence. I mean, I think that would be stupid beyond belief for Brook to fight like that against Spence, because it would be like bringing the food to the young lion. If you’re Brook, you don’t want to make it easy for the lion to tear him to bits on Saturday night.

At least if Brook runs and holds all night long, he might be able to muddy the waters by taking it to the scorecards and possibly win a decision. The fight is in Brook’s backyard in Sheffield. You’ve got to assume that any of the close rounds will go to Brook. We need to have a fair fight for the winner of this mini-mega fight can move on with pride and respect from the boxing public. It goes either way. If the winner of this match is given a controversial decision, it’s going to be a negative for their career. When you win by controversial decisions, it follows you like a skunk, keeping you from getting full credit by the fans.

I mention Brook though because he’s the one fighting at home, and we all know how it sometimes is with home fighters getting controversial decisions. We saw in Brook’s last fight against Gennady Golovkin how one judge had the fight scored incredibly 3 rounds to 1 in Brook’s favor. We also saw how the other two judges had it 2 rounds a piece. I must have seen the Golovkin-Brook fight 100 times since they fought each other last September, and each time I view the fight, I can’t give Brook more than 1 round in the fight and that was round 2.

Brook was staggered in round 1, battered in round 3, chased and pummeled in round 4, and knocked out in round 5. You tell me how does Brook lead on the scorecards 3 rounds to 1 after 4 rounds? The fight took place in London, England, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from Sheffield. That kind of scoring shows you want Spence is up against on Saturday night. I hope there isn’t a controversial decision, but we know how it is in boxing.

“But for me, Kell Brook is the proven one, he’s been there, seen it and got the t-shirt,” said Bellew. ”He’s done it on foreign soil against Shawn Porter, he’s ventured up to 160 against the most feared fighter on the planet. It didn’t work out but he was giving a great account of himself until the injury occurred.”

Bellew doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about when it comes to his thoughts about Brook having proven himself. If you look at Brook’s resume, he’s only fought 2 good fighters in his entire 14-year pro career and those were Porter and Golovkin. I’m sorry but the rest of the guys Brook fought have fighters like Matthew Hatton, Kevin Bizier, Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. Brook has not proven himself during his career. I thought Brook deserved to lose to Shawn Porter, and I think he should have been disqualified for excessive holding in that fight. As far as I’m concerned, Brook DID NOT prove himself against Porter.

That fight was an embarrassment, because Brook clinching like his life depended on it. He would not let Porter fight without him grabbing him in a clinch to prevent him from throwing punches. Normally fights like that, the referee quickly takes points off from the offender. We didn’t see that in the Porter-Brook fight. Brook wasn’t stopped from his clinching of Porter, and it went on the entire fight.
Bellew says Spence reminds him of Vernon Forrest. I disagree. Forrest wasn’t a big pressure fighter and body puncher the way that Spence. The two of them have absolutely nothing in common other than they’re both from USA.