Brook vs. Spence Jr. could be announced Wednesday for May 27

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: There is a press conference this Wednesday for the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Kell Brook fight for many boxing fans believe will be the announcement for their fight on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been waiting on licensing for the fight, and he’s said that he expects it to come through this week. The timing for the fight couldn’t have come at a worse time for the 30-year-old Brook with him coming off of an eye injury and beat down at the hands of middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last September.

Brook is rebounding from the eye injury, and will need to lose a lot of weight to get down to 147 to face Spence. We could be talking about a weight drained Brook on May 27. That’s going to make his job a lot harder than it already is for him to try and turn back the threat from the younger, more powerful and some would say more talented Spence.

Brook will be defending his IBF welterweight crown against the U.S 2012 Olympian Spence, who is his #1 IBF mandatory challenger. Brook likely wouldn’t be facing Spence if he wasn’t his mandatory as he’s been yapping about wanting to fight one of the big names in the welterweight division. Brook could have vacated his IBF title to avoid Spence, but he would have nothing to show for it. There are no big names that are currently available and/or interested in facing him in Brook next fight. As such, if Brook wasn’t facing Spence, he’d likely be stuck fighting a fringe contender. Brook didn’t want to vacate his IBF title and move up to 154 like Hearn wants him to.

Brook will have the hometown advantage against Spence, and he thinks that will help carry him to victory. It’s supposedly a 50-50 fight with the odds-makers, but Spence is a lot more talented than many people realize. He’s another Gennady Golovkin type of fighter, but a lot more aggressive. He’s not going to wait around and play it safe like Golovkin did last Saturday in his fight against Daniel Jacobs. Spence is going to go right after Brook with body shots and will look to knock him out.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. sees the 26-year-old Spence taking over the 147lb. division now that he’s gone from the sport. Mayweather Jr. is quite familiar with how talented Spence is because he sparred with him in the past, and he showed him a lot during the sparring session.

“Errol Spence, he will be the man at welterweight,” said Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Before Spence can claim the crown as the No.1 guy at welterweight, he’s got to beat Brook and Keith Thurman. Those are the two fighters that stand in the way of Spence before he can be viewed as the No.1 guy at 147. WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao would be entered into the equation, but he’s not likely to be fighting too much longer. Further, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum will likely keep him facing his Top Rank fighters for the remainder of his career rather than having him fight guys like Spence, Brook or Thurman.

If Spence whips Brook like I think he will, then that’s going to leave the “Special One” with little choice but to move up to 154 and try and campaign in that weight class. Brook and Hearn will find out the hard way that the junior middleweight division is a division that is filled with difficult obstacles and even more dangerous than 147. Brook won’t be able to win a paper title at 154 and defense it against guys with inflated rankings like he did at 147. There are no Frankie Gavins, Jo Jo Dans and Kevin Bizier type soft opponents for Brook to face at 154.