Brook to Spence: “You’ve made a big mistake, boy”

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook has less than 3 weeks remaining before he defends his IBF welterweight title against arguably the most talented fighter in the 147 pound division today in Errol Spence Jr. on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. The boxing world may be seeing the end of Brook as a world champion at 147, because if he loses badly, as many people expect him to, the next move the 30-year-old makes without question will end with him moving up to 154. However, Brook is putting up a good front by talking tough to Spence in an attempt to throw off his game by putting the scare on him.

I don’t think it’s going to work for Brook (36-1, 25 KOs), because Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) has seen it all during his amateur career and isn’t going to be intimidated by tough talk by Brook.

”You’ve made a big mistake boy! #andstill #May27 @ErrolSpenceJr,” said Brook,

Brook was overweight 5 weeks ago before he started training, but he’s lost pretty much all the weight and is looking like a cyclist. That’s not good news for Brook or his loyal boxing fans, because he looks too thin and not ready to be facing a bruiser like Spence, who is going to be coming after him from the word go.

”Step in the ring, don’t run,” said Spence to Brook.

Spence, 27, thinks that Brook may end up running from him when he gets inside the ring. Brook ran from Gennady Golovkin most of their fight last September. Brook only briefly would stop running to throw a few shots, some of which would land. Overall, Brook was totally outgunned by Golovkin and he seemed to realize that from the very start as he stayed in motion most of the time until quitting in the 5th. It was a bitter – but utterly predictable – end for Brook. He didn’t have the power or the punch resistance to stand up to Triple G.

The ending was so predictable that it wasn’t even funny. The end result of Brook messing with Golovkin was something that many boxing experts expected. When you mess around with a hungry bear, you’re going to get eaten, and that’s what happened to Brook. Now we’re about to see Brook face a talented pressure fighter with a style very simple to Golovkin’s in Errol Spence on May 27, and things do not look good for the Sheffield fighter. Yeah, Brook will have his boxing fans to encourage him at Bramall Lane on the night.

There is expected to be 32,000 fans that will be crowding the stands at Bramall Lane on May 27 to see Brook square off with Spence. However, the fans aren’t going to be inside the ring to run interference for Brook to keep him from getting nailed by Spence’s huge punches. Brook is going to revert to form by getting on his bike and running from Spence. When the going gets tough, I’m predicting that Brook will do what he did in the past in his toughest fights of his pro boxing career against Golovkin and Shawn Porter.

Those are the only 2 good fighters that Brook has fought, to be honest. In both fights, Brook ran, held and spoiled much of the time. Take a look for yourself. Brook was holding Porter like no tomorrow in their fight in 2014, and he probably should have been disqualified. I still don’t know the referee didn’t at least take points off from Brook for his excessive holding. In boxing, there’s holding that a fighter can use when he’s hurt and needs to buy time, and then here’s holding that is done when a fighter is gaming the system to neutralize the offense of their opponents.

That is not supposed to be allowed in the sport, because it’s clearly bending the rules. Brook got away with holding Porter for 12 rounds, and you can argue that’s the only reason he won that fight. I think Brook is going to use the same tactics against Spence on May 27, because he’s an inside fighter like Porter.

Brook doesn’t have great inside fighting skills. Brook’s inside game is pretty much just his uppercut. He doesn’t know how to setup body shots or stand and work the body the way inside fighters do. From looking at Brook’s past fights, his first instinct when crowded by a fighter is to clinch, and he does that quite frequently. Like I said, clinching is supposed to be only allowed when a fighter is hurt. What Brook does is clinch to neutralize his opponent’s offense, and that’s cheating.

Brook’s boxing fans point out that he didn’t use much clinching in his fight against Gennady Golovkin, which is true. He didn’t. But when you look at the Golovkin-Brook fight, you’ll see that Golovkin really didn’t fight on the inside all that often. Golovkin stayed at medium range most of the fight, so Brook wasn’t able to grab him over and over like we saw in his fight with Porter.

Golovkin obviously did his homework and realized that he wouldn’t be able to work on the inside against Brook because he would be held. Spence says he’s worked on a game plan to use Brook in case he starts holding him constantly. It’s unclear what Spence will do in the fight to stop Brook’s holding, but I imagine it could be a form of him of wrestling to work a hand free so that he can pound his midsection. If Spence can stop Brook from holding excessively from the very start of their fight on May 27, then he should be able to work on the inside all night – or for as long as the fight lasts.

”I’m so excited for Brook-Spence the perfect stage for Kell to shine ✨ @Sky Sports Boxing,” said Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn on his Twitter.

On May 27, I don’t think it’s going to be a moment for Brook to shine against Spence. Honestly, I think this fight is going to end REALLY badly for Brook with him getting knocked out. Brook is facing a body puncher that is immune to crowd noise in Spence. Body punchers do not listen to the crowd. They jump on their opponents and turn the fights into grueling affairs that generally end with their opponents wearing down and getting knocked out.

What Brook has going against him in this fight is he doesn’t seem to take it well to the body. I mean, look at how Brook stopped fighting when Golovkin hit him in the bread basket in their fight on September 10 last year. Before Golovkin sunk a right hand to the belly of Brook, he was skipping around the ring, looking cocky, happy and carefree. However, once Golovkin landed a crushing right hand to Brook’s solar plexuses, it was game over for all intents and purposes.

Brook dropped his hands and stopped blocking shots. Brook’s only focus was to make sure he wouldn’t get hit to the body again. It’s painfully obvious that Brook dropped his guard and stopped throwing punches because he was hurt by Golovkin’s body shot. The thing is, Spence is just as good a body puncher as Golovkin if not better.

I hate to say it, but that’s dreadful news for Brook. Spence is the WORST type of opponent that Brook could have in the ring with him. I think if you were to create someone from scratch that made to beat Brook, you would create someone identical to Spence. The talented Spence has all the elements needed to do the job on Brook and do it in spectacular fashion on the night.

”Any of you excited for the Brook-Spence fight in few weeks as i am? Going with Brook to do UK proud. No disrespect to Spence gonna be great!” said Chris Van Heerden.

From what I remember, Spence knocked out Chris Van Heerden in the 8th round in a one-sided fight in 2015.