By Edward Chaykovsky
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) is not overly concerned with a potential mandatory defense against Errol Spence (20-0, 17KOs).
Last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Spence obliterated former WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri in five rounds. It was the first stoppage loss for Algieri, who not long ago went the distance with Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Ruslan Provodnikov.
Spence was ordered earlier this week to face undefeated Konstantin Ponomarev in a final IBF world title eliminator.
Brook will be forced to face the Spence vs. Ponomarev winner, likely by the end of this year.
The Sheffield fighter made a mandatory defense last month when he knocked out Kevin Bizier in two rounds, which frees him up for a voluntary of two until the mandatory situation is worked out.
Brook has a suspicion that Spence is potentially an overhyped fighter and compared him to former super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy.
Back in 2006, Lacy was one of the most feared fighters in the sport. He traveled over to the UK for a unification with Joe Calzaghe. Even the UK pundits had listed Lacy as the favorite. The unexpected happened when Calzaghe dominated and beat down Lacy over twelve one-sided rounds.
"He's still not heard of as a big name but he's definitely showing he's starting to fight and it will be interesting when he becomes the mandatory and we have to get it on," said Brook to Sky Sports.
"But I just wonder if he's got a taste of Jeff Lacy about him, this big hype thing - and look what Joe Calzaghe did to him. I don't know but I have a feeling like that about him. But we won't know until we get it on."
