By Keith Idec
Errol Spence Jr. doesn’t think he’ll encounter a damaged Kell Brook on May 27.
Spence expects Brook to be fully recovered, mentally and physically, from the first defeat of his 12-year pro career eight months ago. Gennady Golovkin fractured the orbital bone around Brook’s right eye and stopped him in the fifth round of their middleweight title fight September 10 at O2 Arena in London.
Brook, 31, moved up from welterweight to middleweight to challenge Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), the Kazakh knockout artist who had difficulty finding credible 160-pound opponents at the time. England’s Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) had surgery to fix his broken right eye socket and took off about six months from sparring as his injury healed.
The 27-year-old Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) respects Brook for moving up to face Golovkin, against whom Brook boxed well at times before his trainer, Dominic Ingle, threw in the towel during the fifth round. The 2012 Olympian from DeSoto, Texas, doesn’t believe Brook will be different fighter when they meet for Brook’s IBF welterweight championship at Bramall Lane, a sold-out soccer stadium in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield.
“Me, personally, I think that Triple-G fight’s in the past,” Spence said during a conference call Tuesday. “He had nine months to recover. I mean, that’s a long time. It’s not like he took a beating for 12 rounds. This guy has been in tougher wars than that over 12 rounds, nine rounds, you know, basically all-out wars and come back to fight. You know, he got hit a lot. He took a beating, but it was five or six rounds and I think nine months is enough for him to recover and recuperate and get back to normal.
“So I’m expecting the 100-percent Kell Brook that comes to fight. I’m not expecting an injured Kell Brook, or a Kell Brook that’s, you know, been weight-drawn or anything like that. It looks like’s making weight pretty good, so I’m not worried about that. I’ve gotta worry about the best Kell Brook.”
Showtime will broadcast Brook-Spence in the United States (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT). Their highly anticipated, 12-round fight will be televised via Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom (6 p.m. BST; £16.95 in HD).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.