Bradley: Kell Brook has an chance against Golovkin

By Boxing News - 07/24/2016 - Comments

Image: Bradley: Kell Brook has an chance against Golovkin

By Dan Ambrose: Both Roy Jones Jr. and Tim Bradley both are on the same side in their belief that undefeated 30-year-old IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) has a good chance of beating knockout artist IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bradley takes a rather simplistic outlook to the Golovkin-Brook fight by pointing out that Brook has two hands like GGG, and ties his shoes like him. In other words, Brook has a chance because he breathes oxygen, drinks water, has two eyes, a nose and ears. He exists on earth, so therefore he has a chance.

“It’s a fight, man. Kell Brook has got a chance against Golovkin,” said Bradley to Fighthype.com. “He’s got two hands. He ties his shoes the same way. He can box. He’s got a shot,” said Bradley.

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Yes, Brook has two hands, arms, legs and a mouth, but that doesn’t mean he beats Golovkin. I wish Bradley had been a little more detailed in giving his reasons why Brook will beat Golovkin instead of falling back on the old ‘He’s got two hands’ rational to explain why he can potentially beat Brook. The problem with Bradley making it so simple is that it doesn’t tell you anything. What it sounds to me like is Bradley saying, ‘Yeah, Brook has a one in a million chance.’ You can excited about that by saying, ‘Really, so he’s got a chance.’ The fact of the matter is that the chance is so slim that it’s not even worth talking about.
“This is a good fight. Don’t write Brook off,” said Jones to Fighthype. “This is a good fight for as long as it lasts. Brook is 178 pounds now. Brook is a big welterweight. Brook can come in at 160 pounds, and be good and very competitive at 160, so don’t count Brook out,” said Jones.

Brook’s weight will definitely be higher for the Golovkin fight than it has been in the past, but that probably will hurt him more than helping him. Suddenly going from fighting at 147 to fighting at middleweight, means that Brook’s heart will need to work a lot harder than it has in the past for him to carry around all hat extra size around the ring for 12 rounds. I’m sure that Brook get good training before the fight to get used to carrying that weight around, but he’s still not going to be the same as a real middleweight that is natural at that weight.

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Brook will be like a race car engine tied to a skateboard for this fight. He doesn’t have the frame to carry extra size that he use in a fight against a talented KO artist like Golovkin. That’s why it would be a lot smarter for Brook to come into the fight at his normal weight and hope that he can use his tricks to drag the fight the full 12 rounds, and then hope that the judges give him a decision.

Brook smothered Shawn Porter with his slick style in their fight in 2014, so there’s a chance that he maybe uses the same tricks against GGG. But it’s smarter for Brook if he comes in lean rather than heavier, so that he can fight hard for 12 rounds and not gas out in the 2nd half of the fight. Once Brook gasses out, he’ll be blasted out quickly by Golovkin if he lasts that long.

If Brook’s trainer is smart, he’ll have him looking to try and use the same blueprint that we saw from Terence Crawford last Saturday night in his fight against Vitor Postol against Golovkin. Crawford ran around the ring for 12 rounds, tying Postol up any chance he could get, hitting him in the clinch, and throwing pot shots from the outside. If Brook can use the same strategy against Golovkin, he’ll have a chance of squeaking out an ugly decision. The main thing is that Brook would win the fight, and there would be enough boxing fans to fawn over his “beautiful boxing” to drown out the heavy criticism from fans for him making it an excruciatingly boring fight to watch. If you look at Crawford, he’s got a lot of pro-Crawford fans gushing about how he looked superb and how it thrilling to watch him move around for 12 rounds. It’s how you see a fight is how you’re going to appraise a fighter’s style. Brook might not take a lot of heat if he chooses to stall the Golovkin fight out for 12 rounds by running and holding.