Jermell Charlo to help Spence for Brook fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Errol Spence Jr. 21-0, 18 KOs) has been assisting WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs) get prepared for his upcoming fight against Charles Hatley (26-1-1, 18 KOs) on April 22. After that fight is over, Charlo, 26, says he’s going to return the favor by helping Spence out in getting ready for his May 27 title shot against IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.

Spence has been sparring the bigger 6’0” Charlo in getting him accustomed to the pressure that he’ll be receiving from Hatley. Charlo thinks he can give Spence a lot of help with the Brook fight, even though he’s taller than the 5’9” Brook. Where Charlo is similar to Brook is in his mobility. He moves really well.

“I am going to come back and help EJ [Spence] after I fight because I think I have a better style than anybody he has been sparring with for Kell Brook,” said Charlo to fightnews.com about him helping Spence. “Because Kell Brook moves a lot, he also punches, so he’s like a boxer, puncher and so am I and just at different weight classes,” said Charlo.

Charlo is a much better fighter than Brook in my view. It’s going to be a huge boost for Spence for him to be able to get in more work with Charlo for the fight. What this means is that when Spence does get inside the ring with Brook, he’ll be fighting at an extremely high level and will have a good chance of dominating the contest.

There’s no word yet who Brook is bringing in his training camp to get him ready for Spence. If Brook sticks with just the normal run of the mill domestic level fighters, he’s going to be out-manned when he gets inside the ring with the real thing on the night against Spence. For Brook to have any kind of a chance at winning the fight, he must train with someone that has a similar style as Spence, and loads of talent. I don’t know who Brook can get. He’ll be going in the wrong direction completely if he gets Liam Williams or Liam Smith to help him train. Those are junior middleweights that are nothing like Spence. Those fighters are completely different.

For Brook to have someone that can help him get ready for what he’s going to be experiencing against Spence, he would need one of the Charlo brothers. Those guys have the most similar style to Spence. Jermell and Spence both share the same trainer in Derrick James. He’s a superb trainer that is one of the best in boxing. James doesn’t get the attention that some of the older trainers do like Freddie Roach and Nacho Beristain, but he’s younger than them. He’s done a fine job with Jermell and Spence. Brook would be a better fighter if he had Derrick James as his trainer.

“I believe EJ is a world champion and I look at him as a world champion, the guy can fight, he’s strong,” said Charlo. ”At 147, he is a much underrated fighter, people don’t give him the respect, the power, he’s good,” said Charlo.

A lot of boxing fans and fighters are in agreement with Charlo about Spence being on the verge of winning a world title. He’s got a great chance of beating Brook in this fight. The power, youth and dare I say the talent is on the side of Spence in this fight with Brook. The only thing that Spence doesn’t have going for him in this fight is the hometown venue. Brook has that, and hopefully we don’t see a controversial decision in this fight. The scoring for Brook’s last fight against Gennady Golovkin was a confusing mess.

Two of the judges had it even after 4 rounds while the other had Brook winning 3 rounds to 1. Golovkin was literally in a situation where if he didn’t get the knockout in that fight, he might have come out the loser in the fight. The scoring by the judges was atrocious in my opinion. I had Golovkin winning 3 rounds to 1. Brook won round 2 and that’s all he won.

One of the major reasons why Spence doesn’t get much attention from boxing fans is because he’s not been put in with a lot of top fighters yet. His management has taken a slow approach with him since he turned pro after competing in the 2012 Olympics for the U.S. Spence didn’t get a quick push like we’ve seen from Ukrainian Olympians Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Their promoters threw them into the deep end from the very start of their careers because they felt they were ready to fight the best. Spence has been moved much slower. It’s only now that he’s getting a title shot. However, Spence is still ahead of the game compared to Lomachenko, Usyk and Gvozdy, because he didn’t spend as much time as they did in the amateur system. Perhaps that’s why Spence’s management chose to take him at a slower pace. He didn’t 300 amateur fights to hone his skills.

Jermell Charlo and Charles Hatley will be fighting at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing. The fights taking place on the Shawn Porter vs. Andre Berto fight card. The card starts at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT in the U.S. It’s going to be a real treat for the fans that see it. Hatley is a major talent with wins over notable fighters Anthony Mundnine, Saul Roman and Richard Gutierrez. Hatley has sparred with Spence in the past, and that’s a big posistive for him going into his fight with Charlo.

Charlo is a lot like his brother former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. As far as I can tell, the main difference between the two talented brothers is Jermall sits down on his shots a lot more. Jermell has excellent power too, but he doesn’t shoot for the fences in the same way that Jermall does. I think Jermell can certainly change his style to become more of a banger like his brother if he wants to. I think we’re already beginning to see that with Jermell in his last two fights in his knockouts of John Jackson and Joachim Alcine. Jermell seemed to put more pop in his shots in both those fights compared to his earlier matches in his career, and it paid off with him knocking both of them out. If Jermell can keep knocking guys out at this clip, he can become a big name at 154 if he elects to stay in this weight class in the future.

Charlo needs to bring the fireworks with him on April 22. Him and Hatley can make it a war. This is going to be a great fight.