Errol Spence: I’m at the neck ain’t no letting up

BoxingNews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #1 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) says he’s at the neck of IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) and he’s not letting up. After months and months of waiting for his title shot, Spence has a purse bid scheduled on Tuesday, February 7 with Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn.

Whether Spence’s manager Al Haymon can win the bid or not is of less importance than him finally being on the verge of getting a crack at Brook or the IBF belt. Hearn has said repeatedly that he thinks Brook should vacate the IBF title because it depletes him to have to melt down to 147 to make weight.

Spence goes through basically the same ordeal to make weight as Brook, but the difference is he doesn’t bellyache about to the boxing media. Spence quietly takes the weight off without complaining about it and using it as an excuse.

“The wait almost over #FightOrVacate,” said Spence on his social media site about his fight for the IBF title against Brook. “I’m at the neck ain’t no letting up. TBT Don’t let a smile before the fight fool you… ??? #MANDOWN #StrapSeason. Purse bid next Tuesday … fight news soon… #MANDOWN #StrapSeason.”

Some boxing fans think Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is trying to help him save face by continually saying that he can’t make the 147lb limit without it depleting him, and that he wants him to move to 154. Hearn is lobbing softballs to Brook for him to take the bait and hit it out of the park, but he thus far hasn’t agreed to vacate his IBF title. A lot of fans see Brook as terrified of Spence, and wanting no part of him.

Brook won’t say conclusively that he’s going to take the fight. He’s let it hang in limbo for months in saying he’ll make a decision. We’re now down to just two days, and the suspense is high with the boxing world in wondering whether Brook will give up his IBF title at the last second before Tuesday’s purse bid on February 7. Some fans see Brook as holding the IBF title hostage because they feel he doesn’t want to agree to the Spence fight and potentially suffer a second consecutive knockout loss.

Spence says that Brook needs to “Fight or vacate” his IBF title. Spence is obviously tired of having to wait on Brook, and he’s tired of the excuses about him not being a big enough name for him to be worthy of fighting. The reality is Brook has only fought one big name in his career in Gennady Golovkin, and he was stopped in the 5th round in that fight last September. Brook had the chance to go out on his shield like a hero, but instead he stopped throwing punches in the 5th round, resulting in his trainer Dominic Ingle throwing in the towel to save him. Only Brook knows why he stopped throwing punches in the 5th round. He looked to be in fine shape still.

So there it is. Spence is set for the purse bid on Tuesday, and this is Brook’s last chance to get out of the fight. If Brook doesn’t feel he’s up to the task, then he needs to bow out now before the purse bid on Tuesday so that he doesn’t wind up wasting his and his promoter Eddie Hearn’s time.

Hearn is quite clear about him not wanting Brook to fight Spence. Hearn wants Brook to move up to 154, even though there’s no easy marks for him to fight in that weight class. Yeah, Brook can make the 154lb division easier than he can the 147lb division, but I don’t think this is what is all about. I don’t see that as the reason why Brook may ultimately move up in weight to the 154lb division. I see it more as a move to hide from a talent like Spence. Hopefully, Brook doesn’t chicken out and vacate his IBF title at the last second to avoid the Spence fight, but I think he will.

If Brook does agree to face Spence, he’s going to need to come up with a new trick to help him hang under the withering fire that he’s going to be experiencing in that fight. I can’t see Brook lasting more than three rounds before he stops punching again and needs to be saved with the white towel from his trainer Ingle.

You can argue that the only reason it took Golovkin 5 rounds to finally force Brook to quit was because he made the mistake of head-hunting for the first four rounds. Golovkin was missing like mad with his shots to the head, because Brook is very good at moving his head to avoid head shots. But when Golovkin switched tactics in round 5 and started going after Brook’s body, he immediately stopped punching and was done for the fight.

It was shocking how fast the end came when Golovkin switched from throwing to the head to throwing to the body. Brook didn’t want to get hit anymore after Golovkin sunk a right hand into his solar plexus. Brook dropped his hands completely and covered his midsection for the remainder of the fight. He obviously didn’t want any more body shots from Golovkin. Spence is an arguably more disciplined fighter than Golovkin. He knows how to chop an opponent down by throwing body shots, which is why I don’t see Brook being able to stand up against Spence for more than 3 rounds at best.

Brook is likely going to go back to his old back of tricks and try and clinch Spence over 10 times per round like he did in his fight against Shawn Porter. If you want to see a clinic on how to excessively clinch an opponent, then watch the Brook vs. Porter fight. Brook was allowed to get away with clinching Porter all night long for 12 rounds without the referee doing anything about it.

It was so sad to see. If this was an NFL game, it would be the equivalent of the cornerback grabbing the wide receiver at the line of scrimmage and holding on to him while he attempted to run his pass pattern. Brook should have penalized round after round, and yet he was able to get away with the holding. Even with the holding, I had Porter winning the fight easily.

I expect Brook to go back to the holding tactics against Spence, because I see that as his only way of having a chance to keep from getting knocked out. Brook isn’t going to be able to run from Spence, because he throws a mean spearing jab that he’ll be catching him with as he runs around the ring. Spence is very good at cutting off the ring as well, and he’s going to have no problems catching up to Brook to force him into a fight.

I think this is the end for Brook as the IBF welterweight champion. Spence is just too good for him. The good news for Brook is he’ll at least get a good payday for his final fight as the IBF 147lb champion. The purse split will be 75/25 in his favor. That’s mandated by the International Boxing Federation. If the fight is put on Sky Box Office pay-per-view, it might bring in some good cash for Brook. Yeah, he’ll likely lose the fight by a knockout, but he’ll get a nice payday in the process of losing the fight.

It’s just bad luck for Brook, because he’s been yapping about wanting a fight against one of the big names like Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman. If one of those fights could have opened up for him back when he was facing weak opposition like Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan or Frankie Gavin, then he could have easily slipped that fight in there. But right now all the big names are busy with fights or planning for other fights.

The IBF took this moment for them to order Brook to finally defend his title against Spence, and that left him with no wriggle room to get out of the fight other than by vacating his IBF title, which he still might end up doing. Brook’s promoter Hearn has been telling the boxing fans for the longest time that he sees him as the best fighter in the 147lb division. Now that he’s finally forced to prove that he’s the best by fighting Spence, we’re seeing a lot of feet dragging.

“Keep your foot on they necks and don’t let up ! #ForeverGrind ???????,” said IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. in a Tweet of encouragement to Spence about keeping his foot on the neck of Brook.

Brook looks shook up from this whole experience. He’s not looked good in the eyes of the boxing fans with him not coming out and just saying that he’ll fight Spence. By dragging out his decision until the final week before the purse bid, it’s been a bad look for him. It doesn’t matter that Brook just fought Golovkin, because that was a no lose fight due to the big payday involved.

No one expected anything of Brook because he was moving up two divisions to fight Triple G, so he was able to escape the criticism from the fans. But with Brook now having to face someone from his own division in Errol Spence, who is four years younger than him at 26, he’s going to take a mountain of abuse from the boxing fans if he loses that fight. If Brook vacates his IBF title to avoid the Spence fight, it’s going to be even worse for him.

Brook just needs to take his lumps like a warrior and do the best job he can. If he’s not good enough to hang with Spence, then he’ll be knocked out like he was against Golovkin. But it would be better for Brook to not to start giving excuses again like he did after his loss to Golovkin. Instead of Brook owning his loss and giving credit to Golovkin for being the better fighter, he blamed the defeat on him having a broken eye socket.

The reality is that Brook stopped throwing punches after he was hit with a hard right to the body in round 5. Brook’s eye didn’t just start giving him problems in the 5th. He’d been fighting with the problem since round 1 when he was almost knocked out. Brook stopped throwing punches after he was hit with a body shot in round 5. He should have told the boxing fans after the fight that he got hurt by the body shot from Golovkin, and that’s why he lost the fight. That’s why he stopped throwing punches and needed to be saved by his trainer Ingle.