Why the “truth” was told: Kell Brook isn’t so special after all

By dalexander - 05/28/2017 - Comments

Image: Why the "truth" was told: Kell Brook isn't so special after all

By David Alexander:  In front of a passionate crowd at Bramall Lane in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England, Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) made a strong case for pound-for-pound recognition by forcing Kell Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) to submit due to a badly swollen left eye. Special K was over matched in rounds 8,9,10 and eventually the 11th when he dropped to his knee and told the ref he couldn’t continue.

This is the second straight fight Brook quit or his corner stepped in to stop the fight. Far too often his career seemed to stall just as it should be kicking off and at 31 he spent far too many years in his career treading water rather than kicking on. Has it all been his fault? No… but it still happened. His performance to win his belt against Porter was good; despite the eventual mutual decision I thought he won far more comfortably then Thurman did against Porter for example. But since then? Bouts against Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin did little to show us how good Brook might be. The GGG bout at 160lbs told us equally little about how good he is at 147lbs.

Spence is a noted body puncher and most of his early attacks were based around that. He’d pop out his quick jab to draw Kell’s eyes and hands, slip inside and try to land punishing hooks to the body. Kell’s notable for being a big 147lbs… and while on one hand that extra size should help him take body shots on the other hand if he’s struggled to make the weight that could mean he’s vulnerable there. For his part Brook tried to work on the counter, often neglecting the jab (an understandable thing against a quick southpaw but not necessarily a good thing) to rely on hooks and right hands instead.

The pattern of Spence largely coming forward and Brook largely playing on the back foot continued although at times the roles subtly changed; some rounds Spence simply put his gloves up and marched forward, at times Brook tried to fight on the inside at others he simply grabbed hold and tried to hold on (which he’s not that great at to be honest… it very nearly cost him years back against Carson Jones).

The bout was even and close to begin with, rounds being nip-and-tuck and a lot coming down to whether you favored Spence’s occasional flurry of body shots or Brook’s work from the outside. As it came to the mid rounds Brook seemed to take control. It wasn’t one-sided and Spence still had (fairly frequent) moments when he put his fast hands together and tried to blitz Brook on the inside (again helped by Brook’s tendency to try and be an octopus when things got up close) but the best individual shots were coming from Brook and he seemed to wobble the Texan a couple of times with big right hands. Then Spence started to come back, working more on the back foot, using his speed to avoid Brook and counters to catch him. One of Spence’s great advantages is how much more effective he was on the inside and hitting the body; at pretty much any time regardless of the situation he knew that all he needed to do was get inside and he would get time to land free shots to the body with little coming back.

As the fight moved from the mid to the late rounds it seemed Spence was in the ascendancy; Brook almost completely abandoned the jab and whether it was the body work paying off or Brook’s weight cut coming back to haunt him he seemed to slow a touch and lose a bit of intensity. Spence started to come forward more and in the eighth in particular Spence just seemed to take Brook apart with his fast hands, power and ability to catch him both on the inside and in transition. In the ninth he dropped Brook early and nearly finished him before Brook roared back. It was valiant from Brook but midway through the 11th Brook, his eye badly swollen and seemingly injured, was forced to quit.

I was worried that the judges would give the hometown fighter the benefit of the doubt on the scorecards. All of them had Spence up at the time of the stoppage, so that’s a relief. Brook would’ve needed a KO or at least a couple of knockdowns of Spence to retain his title, and that obviously never materialized. I had Spence 97-92 until the 11th round stoppage, Brook had the early fight momentum but faded as Spence’s skills and talent started to materialize in the 7th and 8th rounds.

The truth be told. Kell Brook is an overrated fighter. While he was in his peak and undefeated, he kept fighting easy tune up fights in the UK and never fought against Thurman, DSG, Broner and the list goes on. The only fight on his resume so far is a mutual decision win against Shawn Porter (27-1-2, 17 KOs) in 2015.  Actually think it’s quite a shame, Brook is a world class talent but we’ll probably never see it now. His best win is against Frankie Gavin, at best. Think about that for a second.

His injury to both his eye sockets will take time to heal and a long break is needed for Brook to assess if he’s going to stay at 147 or move up at 154 pounds (Eddie Hearn has said he wants him to). With all said and done, tonight at Sheffield, England proved what we knew, Errol Spence Jr. was expected to win and he did. While Spence, Terrance Crawford and Keith Thurman are the future of boxing, it seems Brook is now the past. His back to back defeats leave him an only option and a money maker as well: fighting Amir Khan. While the fight would make money and will prove who is the best UK fighter, at best it is for bragging rights. The common theme for both these fighters are similar, that Brook and Khan are talented, high level fighters that never lived up to expectations and couldn’t make it to that elite level of the boxing world.

Spence proved he belongs in the upper class level in the welterweight division and in the boxing world overall. You can’t close your eyes on this truth. Today we found out that Kell ‘Special K’ Brook isn’t so special after all.