Reigning and defending IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook will enjoy home town advantage when he meets his mandatory challenger Errol Spence Junior in May. But if Brook thinks the prospect of facing him in front of around 30,000 rabid Sheffield fans fazes Spence, he can think again – so says the unbeaten southpaw in speaking with Sky Sports.
Talks are underway for the fight, one of the best that can be made in today’s deep 147 pound division, to take place at football stadium Bramall Lane in Brook’s backyard and Spence – who, aside from a fight in Canada, has yet to box as a pro outside of the US – says he welcomes the “electrifying great event” that this fight would create in front of so many vocal fans.
“I’m old school. I don’t care where I fight,” Spence told Sky Sports. “I’ve got to do what Kell did when he came to America to beat Shawn Porter for the title and that is what I plan on doing. Fighting in front of 30,000 people will be electrifying and a great event. I don’t think Kell’s fought anyone like me before. I’m faster and I hit harder than other welterweights he has faced. I believe I may have Kell’s number, great champion that he is. I want everyone in the UK to watch the fight because it’s two fighters in their prime. It’s going to be a war.”
Indeed, and fans of the welterweights could be in store for a great 2017, what with this great, best versus the best match-up and the equally top-notch Danny Garcia-Keith Thurman unification fight that will precede it. Brook-Spence has the look of a 50/50 fight but much has been made of how making the welterweight limit might affect Brook, who of course bulked up to middleweight for his brave but losing challenge of Gennady Golovkin in his last fight back in September.
Spence is amongst those who wonders how Brook’s weight might affect him in the upcoming fight.
“I don’t know if he has made a mistake coming back down to welterweight or not,” Spence said. “That would be up to his camp. A lot of fighters walk around well above their weight. I walk around at 170 pounds.”
So we will see two big-for-the-weight welters going at it in May. Brook, absolutely huge for the weight, needs to be at his best to win this fight. If he does enter the ring at all weakened or affected by the rigours of somehow getting down to 147 once again, Brook is almost certainly going to be in big trouble if the fight reaches the second half. Then there is the not too small matter of how badly the beating he took at the lethal hands of GGG may or may not have affected “The Special One.”
This fight has so many subplots to it, it’s almost ridiculous.
