Kell Brook will defeat Errol Spence says Nelson

BoxingNews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Going against the grain former cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson believes that IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) will defeat unbeaten 2012 U.S Olympian Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) when the two of them face each other, which could take place in May.

Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in having Brook face Spence in late May at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. Nelson believes that Brook will beat the 26-year-old Spence, and then become a more popular fighter than Amir Khan is. Nelson isn’t saying HOW Brook will defeat Spence. He just thinks he will.

Nelson points out that Brook beat Shawn Porter in the U.S in 2014 to win the IBF 147lb title. Nelson doesn’t say that Brook was allowed to clinch Porter all night long repeatedly in each round to keep him from throwing punches. It was one of the most clinch-filled fights I’ve ever seen before as a writer without the fighter being disqualified or penalized.

Brook got away with nonstop clinching in the Porter fight. The problem with going back to that tired approach of nonstop clinching is that it won’t be a surprise if Brook immediately starts grabbing Spence. He’ll know to expect the clinching from Brook, and he’ll know exactly what to do to make him stop, namely hit him in the midsection while being held. Porter just passively let Brook clinch him without fighting through the clinch. It’s unclear where the referee was during the fight. He seemed to be just watching the clinching without doing anything.

Hopefully there’s not a similar referee working the Brook-Spence fight, because boxing fans need to see an entertaining fight that doesn’t involve excessive holding by one fighter, who is gaming the system by using an illegal tactic to the extreme. When one fighter is gaming the system by holding, hitting low or throwing repeated rabbit punches, the referee is supposed to do his job by taking points off and/or disqualifying. It’s kind of sad when the referee does nothing about it, and just lets it go on. We saw that with the Brook-Porter fight in 2014.

“We’ve seen him up at middleweight, seen how strong he was,” said Nelson to skysports.com. “I think Kell will win and when he does that, I think his stock will shoot straight up. Give me three, top level fighters Errol Spence Jr has dealt with? Is this a 50-50 fight, like the Shawn Porter fight that saw him become a world champion in the American’s back yard? I don’t think so,” said Nelson.

I agree that the Brook vs. Spence fight isn’t a 50-50 fight. I see it more as a 90-10 fight in Spence’s favor. Brook can’t stand his ground against a big puncher like Spence without him being turned into another Chris Algieri in my opinion. Brook will not stand and fight, because he can’t take body shots, and his surgically repaired right eye is likely going to make him too timid to want to fight Spence in a war. Brook has never been the type that fights wars though. Even against Carson Jones, Brook was on his bike after taking punishment from him.
Nelson says that Brook was strong at middleweight.

I don’t agree with that. Brook was running from IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin most of their fight on September 10 last year. When Brook did stop for a second, it was only long enough to throw one or two punches before taking off to the races again. Golovkin was chasing Brook around the ring, hitting him to the head and body.

Where Golovkin made a bad mistake was aiming so many of his punches to the head of Brook rather than to the body. If Golovkin had thrown his shots to the body of Brook rather than the head, I think the fight would have been over a lot sooner than round 5. I think Golovkin was too preoccupied with scoring a highlight reel knockout of Brook rather than just getting the job done and knocking him out with a simple body shot.

In round 5, Golovkin got smart and hit Brook with a right hand to the body that caused him to drop his hands to protect his midsection. That was the end of the fight for all intents and purposes. Brook was so hurt from the body shot that he never attempted to throw any more punches in the last 20 seconds of the fight. Golovkin was teeing off to the head, and missing almost everything. It didn’t matter though. Golovkin landed enough head shots during the final seconds of the fight to get Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle to throw in the towel. Ingle could not allow Brook to be beaten up by Golovkin, so he tossed in the white towel. Spence won’t waste time trying to hit Brook to the head. He’s going to go after his body with his power shots the same way he did against Chris Algieri last year. The chances of Brook dropping his guard as early as the 1st round are very high. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fight ends within two rounds if Spence hurts Brook with a body shot.