By Keith Idec

Kell Brook could’ve moved up.

That’s the message Errol Spence Jr. wants boxing fans to remember once he beats Brook on May 20 in Sheffield, England. Brook could’ve advanced from welterweight (147 pounds) to junior middleweight (154), but according to Spence, the British star’s decision to remain at welterweight eliminates any justification for making weight-related excuses.

“I don’t wanna hear no excuses,” Spence told BoxingScene.com. “If he needs an excuse, he should’ve moved up.”

Spence, the mandatory challenger for Brook’s IBF welterweight title, also offered a reminder that Brook isn’t the only one that has difficulty getting down to 147 pounds.

“Most fighters you run into have to lose a lot of weight to make weight,” Spence said. “Nobody walks around at their fight weight. Even me, I’m a big welterweight. Me and Kell Brook are probably the same size. I walked around at 170-plus. I have to drop a lot of weight, too. I don’t see that as a factor at all and I’m not gonna rely on weight drain or him having to lose weight as a factor in the fight.”

Spence stands 5-feet-9½, slightly taller than the 5-9 Brook.

By agreeing to defend his IBF 147-pound crown against Spence at Bramall Lane, a soccer stadium in Brook’s hometown, Brook will move back down two weight classes. He moved up from 147 pounds to 160 to challenge Gennady Golovkin in his last fight.

Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) stopped Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) in the fifth round of their middleweight title fight September 10 at O2 Arena in London. Brook, who weighed in at 159½ pounds for the Golovkin fight, suffered a fractured right orbital bone during his first professional defeat.

The 26-year-old Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), a strong southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, has mostly fought around the welterweight limit of 147 pounds throughout his four-year pro career. The highest he has weighed in for a fight was 156½ pounds for his eighth-round stoppage of South Africa’s Chris van Heerden (25-2-1, 12 KOs) in September 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.