Kell Brook: I will DESTROY Errol Spence at 154

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid

Kell ‘Terminator’ Brook says he wants to avenge his loss to Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. by taking him on in the summer at 154, and he says he’ll “destroy” him at that weight. Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) wants to fight the unbeaten Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) this summer at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, UK.

That’s where the two of them fought last year on May 27th in a fight that saw Brook quit on one knee in the 11th round. Brook took a knee without being hit, and was counted out by referee Howard John Foster. It was similar stoppage as Miguel Cotto’s 11th round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito in their first fight in July 2008. Cotto couldn’t handle the pressure from Margarito, so he took a couple of knees and that was it.

Spence had a quick reply to Brook saying he’ll destroy him at 154. Spence said, “You got to get a title first. Next time Imma break both your eyes!”

Brook likely won’t challenge for a world title at 154 until 2019. He’s using 2018 to setup his mega-fight with Amir Khan in November or December. Brook likely won’t take on a real threat before he faces Khan.

Spence, 28, has a title defense of his IBF welterweight title against International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) on June 16 in Dallas, Texas. After that fight, Spence’s schedule will be open. Spence could potentially fight Brook in the summer if he’s truly serious about wanting to face him in a rematch. Ocampo will be lucky if he makes it to the 4th round against Spence. There’s little chance of Spence suffering an injury against Ocampo, so he should be ready to get back inside the ring to fight Brook in the summer if he truly wants to fight him a second time.

Brook is blaming his loss to Spence on his eye injury and him not being in the right weight class. Brook feels that fighting at 154 makes him a different animal than when he was at 147. Brook says his engine is better t 154, even though he’s yet to prove it. Brook stopped Sergey Rabchenko (29-3, 22 KOs) in the 2nd round last Saturday night at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK. The fight didn’t go nearly long enough to test Brook’s stamina, and Rabchenko was so painfully slow and over-matched, it

“He can leave his world title, without losing it, and come up to 154lbs or a catchweight,” Brook said bout Spence Sky Sports News. “I will beat Errol Spence Jr. At this new weight, I will destroy him.”

Brook, 31, doesn’t pick out his opponents. That job is done by his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Hearn is the crafty one that finds guys like Rabchenko, Kevin Bizier, Jo Joe Dan and Alvarado Robles for him to fight and look good against. Hearn has already said this week that Brook’s next fight will be a nice little step up at 154 in the summer. It’s not going to be WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, and it sure as heck won’t be the talented Spence. Hearn is trying to build Brook up so he can make the British boxing public forget about his losses to Spence and Golovkin.

The goal is for Hearn to rebuild Brook so he can sell a fight between him and Amir Khan to the UK fans on Sky Box Office in November or December. Hearn will NOT let Brook fight Spence again before he gets that big payday fight against Khan. Even after that fight, I don’t see Hearn letting Brook fight Spence. Hearn has already stated that WBO junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali is a target for Brook. Ali is fighting British fighter Liam Smith in May.

Smith has a VERY good chance of beating Ali. As such, Hearn will likely look to match Brook up against Liam Smith in early 2019 for the WBO 154 lb. title. If Ali beats Smith, Hearn will still almost surely match Brook against him. So, in other words, Brook is going to be put in winnable fights for at least his next 2 fights. After that, Hearn can decide whether to have Brook milk the WBO junior middleweight belt against weak opposition or try and pull welterweights up to 154 for him to fight. Given there are very, very popular fighters in the junior middleweight division, Hearn will likely try and lure fighters from the 147 lb. weight class to move up to 154 to fight Brook. A rematch against Khan will be a given if he’s interested, and if the boxing public wants to see the two of them face each other a second time.

Brook’s win over the 31-year-old Rabchenko has planted some ideas into his head. This the same thing that happened with Brook after he got a couple of wins over weak fodder opponents Jo Joe Dan and Kevin Bizier. After those 2 mismatches, Brook suddenly got delusions of grandeur and moved up to middleweight and fought IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin in September 2016. The results were predicable. Brook ran around the ring for 4 rounds until he was exhausted in the 5th, and subsequently stopped by GGG.

Technically, it was Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle that stopped the fight by throwing in the white towel to have the contest halted, but Brook had already stopped punching and was getting royally worked over by GGG against the ropes. If Brook’s trainer Ingle hadn’t thrown in the towel, Golovkin would have continued to blast away at him until he dropped to the canvas. Moments after the fight was stopped, Brook stumbled back to his corner on weak legs. It was clear that Brook was about to be knocked out cleanly by GGG if Ingle hadn’t thrown in the towel. Brook later said that he was beating GGG, and that he had lifted him off of his feet with an uppercut that he hit him with in the 2nd round. The reality is Brook wasn’t winning the fight. One of the judges, Benoit Roussel from Quebec, Canada, had Brook ahead by the scores 39-37, while the other two judges had it knotted up at 38-38. HBO’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had Golovkin winning 39-37, as did Boxing News 24.

“In the summertime, I will fight him (Spence) at Bramall Lane. Let’s do it again. It will be revenge, it won’t be a repeat,” Brook said in calling out Spence for the summer.

Brook is clearly name dropping Spence’s name to get attention from the boxing fans. I don’t think Brook is at all serious about wanting to fight Spence. This is more about damage control for Brook to bring back the British boxing fans he lost following his consecutive defeats at the hands of Triple G and Spence. I hate to say it but, a lot of Brook’s loyal fans abandoned ship and left him floundering on heavy seas. They obviously saw what I saw. Brook’s career was sinking royally. Brook is standing up crowing about his win over Rabchenko, but that was just a setup showcase fight that his wily promoter Eddie Hearn found for him. That wasn’t a fight between Brook and a quality junior middleweight. Heck, for all intents and purposes, Ranchenko is Phil Lo Greco 2.0. Rabchennko is VERY MUCH like Lo Greco in terms of hand speed, size, and talent.

Brook is getting way too excited over this win over Rabchenko. On the surface, it looks like Brook has lost his head completely over this meaningless win. I could understand Brook working up a lather if he had beaten a talented junior middleweight like Jarrett Hurd, Erislandy Lara, Jermell Charlo or Erickson Lubin, but not over a limited Rabchenko. Brook should realize that this fight was little more than a case of him fighting a 2nd tier journeyman level fighter. Like I said, Rabchenko is Lo Greco 2.0. He’s not much different from that guy. Rabchenko, 5’10”, is a couple of inches taller than the 5’8” Lo Greco, but just as slow and limited.

 

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