By Ben Jacobs

Diego Chaves had at one point been scheduled to face Britain’s Kell Brook for the IBF welterweight title, although that fight was cancelled when the Sheffield man pulled out through injury. 

In a previous interview with BoxingScene.com, Chaves expressed his admiration for Brook’s willingness to fight Gennady Golovkin at middleweight last September, but is of the belief that that decision may have been detrimental to his career.

“I was surprised by the loss that Kell Brook had against Errol Spence, I thought Brook was a lot better than that,” Diego told BoxingScene.com last week.

“But I think he paid for the fact that he went up in weight to fight Golovkin, he paid for that. The natural strength of a middleweight on a welterweight, especially against a monster like Golovkin has affected his body.  The way he lost to Spence was ugly but it’s hard to know what’s going on in the mind of a fighter who lost to one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and then wanted to come back against Spence.  But he and his team will know how to find some solutions and I hope he fights again.”

With Spence winning in such convincing fashion, many in boxing feel that the Texan is now the number one fighter at 147lbs, although others would argue that Keith Thurman may have something to say about that.

“They are very different boxers,” Cháves opined. 

“Errol Spence is a quick fighter, a bit more aggressive than Keith Thurman but Thurman is a difficult guy to fight, hard to predict because of how he moves.  He has a hard punch as well, but they are different.  If I had to choose one I like more, I like the quality and technique of Errol Spence, that’s the kind of boxer I like.”

As far as his own path is concerned, ‘La Joya’ prefers to work his way back into contention in one of the sport’s traditional glamour divisions.

“We want to stay at welterweight but if something big comes up at junior middleweight I can step up.  I can do both weights easily.”