By Edward Chaykovsky
Retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) is already on pace with his 2017 UK tour.
On Thursday, the boxer turned promoter hit Leicester and sat down with former world champion and Sky Sports broadcast analyst Johnny Nelson to tackle numerous questions from the audience.
One of those questions pertained to the highly anticipated fight between IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) and undefeated mandatory challenger Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs).
The fight is targeted for either the last week of May or the first week of June at Bramall Lane in Brook's hometown of Sheffield. The venue holds over 32,000 fans.
According to Mayweather, Brook made a big mistake by not taking an easier fight and believes that decision is going to cost him when he faces Spence.
In his last fight, Brook jumped up by two weight divisions to challenge middleweight king Gennady Golovkin last September. Brook fought very well, but suffered a fractured right orbital bone and was stopped in the fifth round. The orbital bone injury required surgery, which kept Brook out of the ring for the remainder of the year.
Brook had little choice in the matter with Spence. The IBF ordered him to make the mandatory, so either he was going to fight Spence or vacate his title.
“I think [Spence] and Kell Brook is a good matchup, but I don’t think it’s going the distance. I think that Kell Brook took a lot of wear [from the Golovkin fight]. It was a tough fight with him and Triple G, so I think hopping in another battle that fast.... it’s not really that fast, but hopping in another tough fight like that, right after the Triple G fight - it’s going to be rough," Mayweather said.
Mayweather thinks very highly of Spence and often called him "the future of the sport" - but he's not yet convinced on whether or not Spence can become a crossover superstar.
"It takes more than just [skills in the ring].. to become a mega-superstar. You have to have that certain aura. Errol Spence has punching power, he has all the skills inside the ring, but it takes a certain look [outside the ring], a certain type pf personality to become that rockstar. We'll just have to see in due time," Mayweather said.
