By Scott Gilfoid: Oscar De La Hoya is looking forward to tonight’s big fight between American talent Errol Spence Jr. and Kell Brook in their scrap for Brook’s IBF welterweight belt in England. De La Hoya sees Spence knocking out the 31-year-old Brook in the late rounds of their fight at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. If Spence accomplishes that vision, it would a nice victory for the American. He could add Brook’s scalp to his growing list of scalps.
There will be a lot of boxing fans watching the Brook-Spence fight tonight all over the world, especially in England and the U.S. The fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing in the States and Sky Box Office PPV in the UK. The start time for the Brook vs. Spence fight in the U.S is at 2:15 p.m. PT. 5:15 p.m. ET.
De La Hoya raves about the 27-year-old Spence’s talent, and he makes it very clear that he would like to promote the 2012 U.S Olympian. Spence doesn’t have a promoter at this time, and De La Hoya wants to add the big punching southpaw to his Golden Boy Promotions stable so that he can transform him into a big star like he did with Saul Canelo Alvarez.
“I love that fight. I love Errol Spence,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthub about Spence’s fight tonight against Brook. “Spence doesn’t have a promoter. I want to promote him. I love the energy. I love his persona. I love the way he carries himself. I like Errol Spence to knockout Brook in the late rounds; not only because he’s a younger guy. He’s poised, and he throws better combinations. He’s in great shape,” said De La Hoya.
As you can see, De La Hoya is really enamored with Spence’s talent and boxing skills. He views him as the next BIG star at welterweight, and a lot of people are in agreement with him. What De La Hoya is not in favor of is Spence fighting in England. De La Hoya thinks it was a bad move for Spence to go to the UK and put himself in a position where he could lose the fight due to the judging. De La Hoya says he would have forced Brook to come to the States to fight Spence. However, Brook is backed by Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn and they have a contract with Sky Sports.
If De La Hoya tried to force Brook to come to the U.S to fight Spence, they’d likely have not gotten the fight with him. It would have given Brook an excuse not to fight Spence. The only way that De La Hoya could have forced Brook to come to the U.S to fight Spence is if he came up with a HUGE offer to beat the offer from Matchroom Sport in a purse bid. I don’t think De La Hoya would have been able to put in a winning bid against Hearn, because it’s not a fight that would make a lot of money in the U.S compared to the UK.
Tonight’s Brook vs. Spence fight will have 27,000 boxing fans at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. If De La Hoya staged the Brook-Spence fight in the U.S, it would probably be lucky if it brought in 7,000 boxing fans. Spence isn’t a big name in the U.S as of yet, and Brook is an unknown with the casual boxing fans. As such, the fight wouldn’t sell in the U.S. If Spence missed out on the Brook fight due to De La Hoya not being open to letting him fight in the UK, it could take a while before he’s given a shot against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman. Spence would probably never in a million years get a chance to fight for the WBO belt against the Top Rank promoted Manny Pacquiao. That just would not happen.
”He has something to prove out there,” said De La Hoya about Spence in his fight tonight with Brook. ”I wouldn’t have let him go to Europe to fight. I would have made Brook come out here. That’s the reason why I want to promote him. He has no promoter. I would love to get my hands on him and promote him. Errol Spence, he’s a wonderful, wonderful fighter,” said De La Hoya.
Spence seems to be satisfied with him not having a promoter. I think he feels that his popularity is growing without him having a promoter. If Spence keeps winning, he could turn into a huge star in the boxing world even without a promoter. We’ll have to see. Spence is managed by Al Haymon, and that might be enough for him to get to the next level to become a major PPV attraction in the U.S even without Golden Boy. However, if Spence isn’t gaining fans from him collecting world titles, then he might need to consider inking with a big promoter like Golden Boy so they can manage his career and help create an image for him.
“I just made a statement which is true about his record and how they’re pacifying him,” said Spence’s trainer Derrick James to Fighhype.com about the soft match-making that’s been done for Brook throughout his boxing career by his promoters. “Him fighting at home was perfect for him. When you think about it, a lot of people pat him on the back. He didn’t have to [fight anyone good]. I know Errol will be successful and that’s what it’s all about. We don’t know if it’s Errol’s toughest fight until we see if Kell can take it. He may be just like the other guys. We’ll see, and I’m not sure,” said James.
I agree with Derrick James. I have a feeling that Brook might not be Spence’s toughest fight of his career. Spence’s toughest fight of his 5-year pro career to date was his 2013 fight against Emmanuel Lartei Lartey. Spence was hurt late in that fight. After Spence was hurt, he had to adapt and use his boxing skills to last out the fight and win a wide 8 round unanimous decision. For a guy with only 1-year under his belt as a pro at the time, Spence took on a very tough opponent in Lartey. You’ve got to give Spence a ton of credit for taking on a talented fighter like Lartey. We didn’t see Brook face a guy with Lartey’s toughness until the 10th year of his career when he faced Shawn Porter, who he clinched all night long to win a controversial decision in 2014. Brook didn’t fight Porter the way Spence did with Lartey. Spence actually fought Lartey in trading huge blows.
With Brook, he held Porter over and over again for 12 rounds while the referee opted not to do anything about the holding by disqualifying Brook.
“Mark Breland was a big welterweight at 6’2”,” said James in pointing out that Kell Brook is NOT a big welterweight. “Paul Williams was a big welterweight at 6’2”. A guy that is 5’8 ½” is not a big welterweight. The bar has been set so low. It is laughable that a guy that is 5’8” is a big guy. Tim Bradley is a shorter guy. 5’8” is not a big guy. This guy is not a big welterweight,” said Kenny Porter about Brook.
Brook is definitely NOT a big welterweight. He’s a heavy welterweight. There’s a difference. Weigh-wise, Brook should be fighting at junior middleweight rather than welterweight. However, with Brook’s limited 5’8 ½” height and short reach, he would be out of his class if he fought at 154 against the bigger 5’11” and 6’0” fighters like Jermell Charlo and Erickson Lubin. Those guys are just too big for Brook. I hate to say it, but once Brook can no longer make weight at 147, his career as a top fighter will be over for all intents and purposes. I mean, Brook will be a contender at 154, but not a world champion.
“This head to head was funny to us Americans,” said Ken Porter to Thaboxingvoice.com about Brook trying to intimidate Spence during the face off at the weigh-in last Friday. “We didn’t see that as intimidating. We didn’t see that as fearful. We didn’t see that as something we should be worried about on fight night. We saw that as more funny and comedic. But when Errol said, ‘Man Down,’ we felt that’s what he means. When he says, ‘Man Down,’ he means it from his heart. We expect him to do that in the fight, ‘Man Down,’ – Kell Brook being down and Errol Spence getting his hand raised,” said Kenny Porter.
I saw the face-off between Brook and Spence the same way that Kenny Porter did. It looked laughable when Brook tried to intimidate Spence with some trash talking, and throwing air punches immediately after the two fighters turned to the audience. Brook would have been better off if he’d just stood perfectly still and smiled and waved at the boxing fans. The only thing Brook accomplished in throwing air punches was making himself look weak and slow. All that weight that Brook had taken off had left him drained and weak. Yeah, Brook made the 147 pound limit, but he looked like heck. He looked terrible.
“My advice to Errol is to do things he’s always done and to be prepared to deal with excessive holding in the fight, because that’s what we dealt with,” said Porter. <>”We had to deal with that. No matter how you look at it, after a certain point, too many holds becomes a foul. But it wasn’t addressed in the fight, and we just had to deal with it in the fight. That would be my main concern that they would talk to the referee before the fight and make sure there’s a clear understanding what’s a clinch, what’s a hold and what’s a foul and what he’s actually going to allow. Be clear of that with the referee,” said Porter.
Spence and his trainer Derrick James can certainly try speaking with the referee before the fight to tell him to control Brook’s nonstop clinching in the fight, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to. The referee has got to want to do his job by controlling another fighter’s fouling and bending of the rules. If the referee decides that he’s fine with letting a fighter game the system with excessive holding, then there’s not much you can do about it other than figure out how to work a hand free to pound Brook in the bread basket while he’s holding on.
I wouldn’t get in the mud with Brook and start fouling like him if I were Spence. After all, Spence IS the visiting fighter. If Spence decides to hit Brook low to get him to stop holding, I can see the referee taking points away for that foul but not the holding that Brook is doing. Likewise, if Spence decides to pay Brook back with rabbit shots to get him to stop holding, I think the referee might choose to take points away from Spence for that as well. That’s why it’s best for Spence to work hard to throw punches while being held.
Shawn Porter didn’t do that while being held excessively by Brook in their fight in 2014. Porter just waited for the referee to break them apart each time, thinking that he would eventually start warning and taking points away from Brook. When I become abundantly clear that the referee wasn’t going to do his job to deduct points from Brook for his excessive clinching, then Porter needed to make adjustments by throwing punches while he was being held. Believe me, fighters don’t like being hit hard to the body while they’re holding in a clinch. Porter should have made sure he hit Brook as hard as he could with body shots over and over again each time he held. Fighters like Sakio Bika were incredibly good at keeping his opponents from holding him, because he would rough them up badly when tried to bend the rules.
“I have a lot of confidence in his inside game,” said Porter about Spence’s inside fighting skills. “He’s a strong fighter on the inside. We do want to rematch Kell Brook. The problem we’ve had with that, which you guys should be able to figure out yourselves, Kell Brook has never been interested in a rematch with Shawn. He was never interested in that. I think Errol is strong enough and determined enough to put Kell Brook down and when the fight by a strong decision,” said Porter.
So there it is. Kenny Porter is picking Spence to beat Brook tonight. I happen to agree with Porter. The only way that Brook wins this fight is if he ties Spence up with 10+ clinches per round, and is too strong for him to break out of those clinches. No, I don’t think the referee will lift a finger to stop Brook from grabbing all night long. If Brook proves to be too strong with his clinching, then he’ll have a chance of winning the fight by landing 3 or 4 punches when not holding. But I’m hoping that Brook actually fights Spence instead of cheating for 12 rounds.
