Great fight this. Taking them both at their best you've got 2 confident, hard hitting, strong minded guys here. Both had big upset wins in the States against reigning Champions. I've seen a fair bit of both of them live over the years and they would have been beautifully matched. Lloyd probably has more natural skill and, when the stars were aligned, had great instincts. He could switch very effectively from orthodox to southpaw and threw punches from rare angles which gave him the great advantage of surprise. Just look at the Don Curry fight. Brook, of course, has the gift of the genuinely big punch and the skill to set it up. I was about 15 feet away when he chinned Stuart Elwell, a lad I know quite well. Stuart is a very tough fella and was a serving Royal Marine when he fought Brook. He said he had never been hit so hard. When he came round ! If Brook can survive the first 5 rounds when Lloyd is going to be switching stance and catching him with hard, hurtful shots he only partially sees or maybe doesn't see at all then I can see him catching up with a slowing, flat footed Honeyghan and putting that power on him. Brook by KO around the 10th but only if he hears the bell for round 6.
I've never really rated Brook as highly as a lot of others do. Both at their best I'd take Honeyghan to win this one with a good chance of a late stoppage. I know people have their reservations about his win over Curry because of Curry's issues with weight making, but even if you want to discount that fight, I'd say the Honeyghan who absolutely outclassed and took apart Rosi and Shufford is a different class of fighter to any version we've seen of Brook, who I think is little one-paced. Honeyghan at his best had a stronger physical presence about him than Brook, was quicker and wasn't easy to nail with anything clean. Honeyghan by TKO late.
