Golovkin training at Big Bear, preparing for Brook

By Boxing News - 07/28/2016 - Comments

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Photos Courtesy/Abel Sanchez ) By Chris Williams: (IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) is hard at work in training camp in Big Bear Lake, California with trainer Abel Sanchez to get ready for his September 10 fight against Britain’s Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England.

The fight is already sold-out, and it’s very likely to do well on Sky Box Office PPV. The fight will be televised in the U.S on HBO World Championship Boxing. Golovkin has been adopted by many of the American fans despite the fact that he’s not from the U.S. Golovkin is currently living in Los Angeles, California.

The fight presents some difficulties for GGG despite him being the favorite to win. He’s going to need to deal with a faster, more mobile fighter than the guys that he’s been fighting. Brook like to move around the ring, land jabs, and tie up his opponents. He also has good punching power. Brook is a very different type of fighter compared to the guys that Golovkin has been fighting during his career.

Brook is capable of doing a lot of different things inside the ring. Brook usually focuses on his punching power to get his opponents out of there. If he can’t bang them out, he’ll look to box and keep his opponent guessing. Golovkin will need to be smart for him to deal with the constantly changing looks that Brook gives him in this fight, because his usual aggressive style of fighting may not work for him in this contest.

Golovkin, 34, will be looking to increase his star power by destroying Brook to win his 23rd consecutive fight by a knockout. Golovkin’s knockout streak has made him highly popular in America, as he gives fans pure action in his fights without the running and time wasting moves from many of the pretenders in the sport.

When American fans sit down to watch boxing, they want to see knockouts and be entertained. They’re not looking to watch a dull safety first fighter look to counter punch all night long and avoid getting hit. That’s what makes Golovkin so exciting to watch. He looks to make a show of it, and he’s not afraid to get hit while in the [process of shooting for a knockout.

Brook has a really tough test in Golovkin, because we’re talking about a fighter that likely would have knocked out every guy that Brook has faced in his career. It’s safe to say that if Golovkin had fought the same guys that Brook had fought, his record would be 36-0 with 36 knockouts. You can’t say the same thing about Brook. He would have a very tough time trying to beat past Golovkin opponents like David Lemieux, Curtis Stevens, Willie Monroe Jr, Gabriel Rosado, Daniel Geale, Matthew Macklin, and Martin Murray. Could Brook have beaten all of those guys? Possibly, but it wouldn’t be easy. Brook would take some serious lumps against Stevens, Monroe, Rosado, Macklin and Murray. Those guys would give Brook a lot of problems.
Brook, 30, may need to pitch a shutout on September 10 for him to have a shot at beating Golovkin. Is it possible? Yes, it’s possible.

We saw Brook beat Shawn Porter in 2014, and there were many boxing fans who didn’t give Brook much of a chance of winning that fight. Porter was faster, better on the inside, busier and the more aggressive of the two on the night. Brook still found a way to squeak out a win. It’ll be a lot harder against Golovkin, because he’s bigger, stronger, and more experienced than both Porter and Brook. Golovkin is also a very dangerous puncher both to the head and body.

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Brook can work to shut one part of Golovkin’s offense down, but he’s not going to be able to shut him down completely. If Brook uses movement, he’s still going to get forced up against the ropes a number of times in each round, and he’ll need to be able to fight during those occasions. That’s going to be difficult for Brook because he’s not a skilled in fighter. It’s too late in the game for him to learn how to fight on the inside in one camp.

Learning to fight on the inside takes many years. You can’t count clinching as fighting on the inside, because that’s not going to score points with the judges. Brook won’t be able to tie Golovkin up for 12 rounds like he did against Porter. Brook will need to figure out how he’s going to be able to fight Golovkin because survivalist tactics will not work for 12 rounds.

Golovkin is coming into the fight with Brook with a 91.4% KO ratio, and there’s never been anyone better in the history of the 160lb division. Brook is going to need to prove that he can take Golovkin’s power for 12 rounds to avoid becoming another knockout victim. Golovkin will no doubt be looking to score his 23rd straight knockout, because with each KO he records, he becomes more popular in the U.S and worldwide.

Brook is going to need to have a good chin for him to be able to handle the fire power from Golovkin. It’s hard to know how well Brook can take punishment, because he’s faced largely weak opposition during his career due to the match-making done for him by his promoters.

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We do know that Vyacheslav Senchenko and Carson Jones both had Brook hurt. He was able to win both fights, but he was hurt nonetheless, and these guys aren’t known to be huge punchers. Porter was held too much by Brook to know what he would have done. Brook made sure he held him every chance he could get, and the fight was not a traditional fight in the sense of punches being thrown. It was more of a wrestling match for 12 rounds.

Golovkin will be looking to turn Brook into a statistic in this fight, and it’s going to be up to Brook to show that he can fight back to prevent that from happening. Just looking to survive likely won’t work this time for Brook. He must try to win because if he just spoils, he’ll likely get knocked out and made to look bad.

A lot has been made of Brook moving up two weight divisions to fight Golovkin. The truth of the matter is that Brook is really moving up just one weight division. He’s been a junior middleweight fighting at welterweight for many years now. Don’t ask why Brook has been fighting at welterweight. It’s probably the same reason why the 180+ pound Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been fighting junior middleweights and welterweights during his career. It obviously helps to have a big weight advantage over your opponent.

Brook won’t likely have the weight advantage against Golovkin though, and this could present a huge problem for Brook. When you become accustomed to being the bully against lighter guys than yourself during your career, it’s a shocking experience to suddenly be fighting someone that is actually bigger than you.

Brook is coming into this fight against Golovkin with recent wins over Kevin Bizier, Frankie Gavin, Jo Joe San and Shawn Porter. Those are obviously not the kind of opposition that you’d like to be fighting to get you ready for a fight against Golovkin. The type of guys Brook has been fighting are the type of fighters you face to get you ready to fight someone like Robert Guerrero, Sammy Vasquez Jr and Devon Alexander, but definitely not Golovkin. Brook has been facing largely fringe level guys since his win over Porter.

The career long soft match-making done for Brook could haunt him when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin because he won’t have had the experience of fighting quality opposition to prepare him for the ordeal in front of him.