It looks as if Kell “Special K” Brook will be making the 147 pound limit after all for his title defense against unbeaten 2012 U.S Olympian Errol Spence on May 27 at Bramall Lane, in Sheffield, England. With 21 days still to go before the HUGE fight, Brook is already down to 153 pounds and looks in fighting shape.
Brook, 30, doesn’t looked weight drained at this time. Whether he’ll still look good once he gets down to the 147 lb. limit for the weigh-in on May 26 is the big question. 6 lbs. may not sound like a lot, but it can be if a fighter such as Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) had to struggle to get to where he is now. Brook reportedly was over 180 lbs. when he started training for the Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) fight, so he’s lost a considerable amount of weight already just to get down to 153.
Brook isn’t the only one that has to drop a lot of weight. Spence walks around in the low 170s in between fights. He’s someone that could easily be fighting at junior middleweight if he chose to. Spence weighs the same as middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin does after he rehydrates for his fights at middleweight. That tells you something about the bravery of Golovkin to be fighting in a weight class where many of his opponents are rehydrating to the 180s against him.
Brook will be defending his IBF welterweight title against the undefeated Spence in front of what will be a tremendous pro-Brook crowd of approximately 32,000 fans on May 27. Spence says he’s not bothered fighting in front of so many of Brook’s fans, but we’ll have to find out for ourselves if that’s the case. Spence’s promoters have put him in a situation with him fighting a risky fight in front of a big foreign crowd. They must have a lot of belief in Spence that he can do the job for them to be willing to let him fight in another country.
Spence is seen as the future star of the welterweight division. To have the potential replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting at a pro-Brook venue, it puts Spence in a high pressure situation. If Spence gets robbed of a decision win in the UK, then his resume will be marred, and many boxing fans won’t be nearly as enamored of him due to his record not being unbeaten.
The casual boxing fans won’t know that he was ripped off. Spence isn’t being worried about finding himself on the receiving end of a hometown decision against Brook. He believes that he’s going to knock Brook out so that the judges don’t have the final say so in the outcome of the fight. What’s working in Spence’s favor is the fact that Brook is coming off an eye injury and a mini-beat down in his 5th round knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin last September. Brook’s right eye socket was broken by a left hook from GGG.
Brook has had surgery to repair the busted eye socket. They replaced the socket with a titanium plate, which Brook says is stronger than his original socket. I don’t know if that’s true or not. It might not matter. If Brook’s right eye swells up and closes once he gets hit by Spence, he’s going to have some problems on his hands on May 27. It’ll be hard for Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle to leave Brook out there against Spence if he only has 1 good eye working for him. The towel might get thrown into the ring again by Ingle like he did last time Brook fought against Triple G.
The fact that Brook isn’t taking a tune-up fight before the Spence contest is a little troubling. Brook should probably have vacated his IBF title and taken a tune-up or two before fighting Spence. Obviously, there would be no reason for Brook to face Spence once he gave up his IBF title, but it would be the smarter thing for him to do. Spence is a big puncher, and he’s not the ideal opponent that someone should be fighting when they’re coming off of a serious eye injury like Brook.
This is Brook’s first real test at 147 since he won the IBF title in 2014. Brook has had several easy defenses since he captured the belt in defending successfully against Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin and Kevin Bizier. Brook likes to point out that he’s never been beaten at welterweight, which is obviously true.
Brook has only faced 1 good welterweight in his entire career in Shawn Porter. Spence, 27, is a considerable jump up from the guys that Brook has been facing during his career at 147. Spence is a Golovkin-like high pressure fighter, but more of a body puncher from the old school. This could be a real nightmare for Brook to deal with, because he hasn’t fought any real body punchers outside of Golovkin, who mostly threw head shots at him last September.
