By Chris Williams: Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) won’t have the chance of fighting for unbeaten Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s WBA middleweight title because the World Boxing Association won’t be sanctioning the September 10th fight as a title match-up due to the 30-year-old Brook never having fought at middleweight during his career. Brook is moving up in weight from the welterweight division to challenge Golovkin at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
If Golovkin wants to have his WBA title on the line for the fight, then he’ll need to request permission from the WBA to do so, according to Fight News.
While it’s true that the WBA is not going to sanction the Golovkin-Brook fight as being a title with their belt, if Golovkin loses the contest, then his WBA belt will go vacant. Brook can’t win the belt by beating Golovkin.
“The Championships Committee and the Presidency have not agreed to sanction this bout as a title fight because Brook has never fought as a middleweight,” said WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza to fightnews.com.
Who's ready for #GolovkinBrook? Photo by @muls96. pic.twitter.com/fnMFcOXesB
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) July 15, 2016
If Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler wants to seek permission from the WBA to let them have the WBA title on the line for the Brook fight, then they can do so.
It’s probably not a big deal for Brook whether the WBA title is on the line for the fight against Golovkin, because he still can win the IBF, IBO and WBC belts. But more important than the titles is the victory itself and what it would mean for Brook. If he can be seen defeating Golovkin, it would open up the possibility of him getting a big money rematch as well as fights against the likes of Chris Eubank Jr., Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Chris Eubank Jr., Daniel Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders. A win over Golovkin might also help Brook finally get a fight against Amir Khan and Danny Garcia. Those are two matches that Brook has wanted for some time. A victory over Golovkin could lead to a lot of great fights for Brook if he doesn’t scare everyone away with his win.
It does somehow cheapen the sanctioning bodies divisional titles if fighters can move up in down and challenge for the titles without even fighting in the division they’re challenging. You can also argue that it’s not fair to the fighters that fight in the middleweight division to have a welterweight like Kell Brook move up in weight and get an immediate title defense against Golovkin without even having to earn it. If you’re one of the contenders in the WBA’s top 15 at middleweight, you’re probably not going to be too happy to see Golovkin ignore you and give a welterweight a title shot instead of you.
If you’ve been waiting for a title shot for many years, it’s got to hurt to see Golovkin defend against a non-middleweight. If this were baseball and a Major League team decided to play a farm league team from the minor leagues because of the money they would make, it probably wouldn’t go over too well with the other teams in the Major Leagues. Brook isn’t a farm team type of fighter, but he also isn’t a middleweight and he’s not ranked in that division.