Spence beats Brook, calls out Thurman

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) “pressed out” an 11th round knockout victory over IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) on Saturday night, and then immediately Spence called out WBA/WBC 147 lb. champion Keith “One Time” Thurman for a unification fight. Spence likely won’t be getting a fight against Thurman until possibly late in 2017, as he’s out of commission for the time being after having elbow surgery.

Brook suffered an eye injury to his left eye. His promoter believes it’s another broken eye socket. Brook’s right eye socket was broken in his last fight against Gennady Golovkin. What are the odds of a fighter suffering back to back broken eye sockets on different eyes? That’s got to be very rare in boxing history.

Spence did a great job of rallying tonight from a first half to take the later rounds before stopping the 31-year-old Brook in the 11th round. Brook suffered a bad eye injury around the 7th round. The injury led to Brook taking a knee in the 10th and 11th to escape punishment.

At the time of the stoppage in round 11, Spence was ahead on the scorecards 97-92, 95-94 and 96-93. Boxing News 24 had Spence winning 95-94 at the time the fight was stopped. The match was still very much in the balance if Brook hadn’t suffered the injury. Brook also looked fatigued from the pace of the fight and the body punching from Spence. There’s also a possibility that Brook’s tremendous weight loss might have had a contributing factor for him wearing down the way he did in the second half of the fight.

“I’ll have to wait,” said Brook after the fight on Saturday night when asked who he’ll fight next. “I’ll talk to Eddie. I’ll fight anyone Wherever the money is, and whoever the fans want. That’s what I’ll do. Yeah, could,” said Brook when asked if he can make 147.

A fight between Brook and Khan is a possibility, but it might have to wait until 2018 in the summer. That’s when Khan is talking about wanting to take that fight. Brook may need time to recover from his left eye injury. The British boxing public has some interest in seeing Brook fight Khan, but it’s debatable how much interest there is in that fight. Khan has been on the shelf for a year now. A fight between them might not draw at this point. However, it would be one that Brook can win if he doesn’t suffer a setback with one of his eyes.

“For me, Kell was winning the fight after 8 rounds,” said former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew. “He was 2 up after 8 rounds. So who’s going to touch Kell Brook? No one. He’s a nightmare. He’s hard to fight. He can punch, strong engine.”

If the fight had been an 8 rounder instead of a 12 rounder, Brook would have won. Brook was still doing well up until the 8th. The problem is the fight was 12 rounds, and Brook wore down from the 8th round on. It was like watching 2 different fights. Brook controlled the first half, and Spence took over in the second half. Many in the boxing world predicted that Brook would start off fighting well in the first 6 rounds, and then wear down in the second half of the fight due to the weight loss.

Brook had bulked up in his previous fight in moving up 2 weight classes to challenge IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10 last year in London, England. To compound Brook’s problems, he suffered a broken right eye socket in that fight. The injury kept him out of commission for an extended amount of time because of the surgery Brook needed.

Brook subsequently gained a lot of weight during his time out of the ring. Losing all that weight in a long training camp could have contributed to him wearing down in the second half of the fight with Spence. Brook wasn’t blaming his loss to Spence on his weight. Brook said it was the blurred vision from his left eye injury that caused him to be stopped.

“Definitely, I’ve been calling out Keith Thurman for a long time,” said Spence. “The last time he said I have to prove myself and I haven’t fought anybody. I just beat the so called best welterweight in the division in Kell Brook. So now, Keith Thurman, come out. It’s time to fight. Man Down, strap season 2,” said Spence.

There’s no excuse for Thurman not to fight Spence any longer. Using the excuse of Spence not being well-known enough or not experienced enough won’t fly. If Thurman chooses not to fight Spence now, it’s going to be interpreted by some boxing fans as him ducking the fight. Thurman will still likely wait until 2018 to fight Spence though, as he’s got the option to fight rematches with Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia, both of which he recently beat.

Thurman’s next fight will very likely be against Garcia. That’s an arguably easier fight for Thurman than Porter, who seemed to give him a bit more problems than Garcia did. Thurman’s recent narrow win over Garcia seemed to be more fault of his own than anything Garcia did. Thurman started coasting after building a wide lead in the first half against Garcia. Thurman never reasserted himself for some reason. It’s possible that he had faded due to him having taken off a lot of weight in training camp for that fight.

“I want to thank Kell’s fans for their boos and letting me use that as motivation,”said Spence. “I told you I was coming over here to bring the title back to America and I did that. It’s nowhere up from here. I want to fight Keith Thurman. I want to fight Manny Pacquiao and I want to unify the titles, and my ultimate goal is to become the No.1 welterweight in the division,” said Spence.

Spence has very little chance of fighting Pacquiao or Thurman next. A fight in the future with Thurman will obviously happen. A fight with Pacquiao will probably never happen. That one is not in the cards. Terence Crawford could be moving up to 147 in the near future. That would be an option for Spence at some point, but probably not until at least 2019 or later if he holds onto his IBF title for that long. When Crawford does move up to 147, he’ll take Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization title, which seems to be getting passed along from one Top Rank fighter to another nowadays for the past couple of years.

“Kell Brook’s a strong fighter,” said Spence. “He’s strong and he’s fast. I knew he was going to be strong and crafty, and he can punch. I had to show true grit and go into fire and press him out. The 8th and 9th rounds, he started to wear down, and I started to press him out. I was hitting him with good shots and he was standing still a bit more, and then I saw him blink. He blinked with the eye that he hurt, so I decided to jump on him. He started to swell up a lot more in the 9th and 10h round, and I just jumped on him. He hit me with some good shots but it was nothing that ever hurt me. I prove that today that I could take a punch from a big welterweight. I used their energy as motivation to try and silence the crowd,” said Spence.

Brook is a pretty good puncher when he sits down on his shots. Tonight, Brook was moving too much and not setting his feet for him to get maximum power. Brook also seemed to be bothered by the first pace of the fight that Spence was setting. Spence never let Brook rest. That was the real problem. Brook always had Spence in his face in the same way that he had in his loss to Golovkin last September. Spence was hitting Brook with a lot more body shots than Golovkin. That had to have been a problem for him.

“Hopefully, I can get back in the ring,” said Spence in talking about his next fight. “Keith Thurman’s out for a while. Maybe I can fight at home and then later fight Keith Thurman at the end of the year or next year. Skill-wise, I think me and Keith Thurman are the most skilled welterweights in the division. We’re the biggest and the strongest welterweights in the division. I am the best fighter in the welterweight division right now,” said Spence.

Spence will need to fight better for him to defeat Thurman. Brook was getting the better of Spence tonight before he hurt his eye. Without the injury, Brook might have won the fight. Thurman seems like a better fighter than Brook with more hand speed, power, and much better movement. Spence will have a hard time connecting with his shots against Thurman unless he increases his pressure. Spence will definitely need to speed up his attacks for him to beat Thurman.

“That’s what we always do, attack the body,” said Spence. “You go 12 rounds. So later on you wear your opponent down when you go to the body. That’s what I did. He was real sharp, and then he started to wear down a little bit late in the fight,” said Spence.

“I talked to him in Toronto. He was pretty confident he can beat me,” said Spence about Thurman. “I think he’ll fight me.”

Thurman will fight Spence, but he’s not likely going to be in a rush to make the fight happen. Thurman has had 2 tough fights in a row. He might opt for a soft defense before facing Garcia. Thurman is only fighting 1 to 2 times a year now. If Thurman takes a tune-up in his next fight and then a fight with Garcia, it’s possible that a fight with Spence won’t happen until late 2018 unless Thurman chooses to only fight once in 2018 like he did in 2016.

“He didn’t hurt me at all, but he’s very strong,” said Spence about Brook. “I definitely felt his punches, but it was nothing that hurt me. If I don’t have to leave it to the judges, then I’m not going to do that. There was a point in there where I could see that if I jumped on him, I could stop him. So I jumped on him so it couldn’t go to the scorecards. This was a great experience, especially early in my career. My first title shot coming here, and basically fighting for the first time in front of 30,000 screaming fans in the champions own town. This was a legacy defining fight for me. I proved to myself that I have composure, and have true grit and that I can put it out when I have to,” said Spence.