By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Freddie Roach believes the only reason that IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) is moving up in weight two divisions to take on unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) in their fight on September 10 is because he’s desperate for a payday and willing to take the risk because of that.
Roach notes that Brook has never been able to get a fight against Britain’s Amir Khan, and that other fighters from his division have avoided him pretty much. So instead of sticking it out at 147 in taking the guys that are willing to fight him, Brook decided to take a major risk in moving up thirteen pounds to face Golovkin at 160lbs without the benefit of a catch-weight.
Roach gives Brook no chance of winning the fight against Triple G, because he sees him as far too good for Brook to beat. Roach sees Golovkin as the No.1 fighter pound-for-pounds in the sport of boxing today.
“He’s got a lot of balls,” said Roach to Fighthype.com about Brook taking the Golovkin fight. “I mean, Triple G is the most ducked guy in the world at this point, I think. He’s a good fighter. I like him, and he’s a good person. You can’t dislike him for being so good, but he is a very, very good fighter. I think he’s way too big and strong for Kell Brook. I think Kell Brook is desperate to look for a payday out there. He’s never gotten that opportunity because Amir Khan won’t fight him, and he’s always been ducked a little bit. So he chose to jump up in weight like Amir Khan did, and you saw what happened to Amir Khan. I expect the same thing to happen to Kell Brook. I think Triple G is the best fighter in the world today pound-for-pound. I’ve studied this guy, his ring generalship. He’s very, very good,” said Roach.
I totally agree with you, Mr. Roach. I think Brook IS desperate for a payday, which is why he’s agreed to take a fight that he has no chance of ever winning against the talented KO artist Golovkin. This is going to end badly for “Special K” in this fight with him getting royally slaughtered. Might I disagree with you on one point, Mr. Roach? When you say that Brook has been “ducked a little bit” by the other welterweights in the division. I don’t happen to believe that mess. I see it as Brook not being worth it for the other welterweights to fight due to him having a name in the U.S due his incredibly padded resume filled with fluff opposition. I mean, if Brook had been fighting talented welterweights his entire career instead of the no names that permeate his record, I think he would either very popular right now or he’d have a record that would be littered with losses. My guess is Brook’s record would be filled with losses. As such, there’s no real reason for the talented welterweights in the division to fight Brook because the fans don’t have clue one who he is because of his stunted career resume. When you build as record filled with fluff, it kind of leaves you in a situation where you remain an unknown. That’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? If Brook had been risking his hide all this time fighting the likes of Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana, Terence Crawford, Ruslan Provodnikov and Andre Berto, he’d at least be known to the U.S fans and this would lead to the top American fighters possibly wanting to bother fighting him if he wasn’t a journeyman by that point.
When asked if there’s anyone that can beat Golovkin, Roach said, “not at that weight, no.”
It’s true that Golovkin is likely going to walk right through Brook and smash him to bits on September 10. It probably doesn’t matter that the fight will be in front of Brook’s own fans at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Brook’s fan might unwittingly cause him to get knocked out even faster in this fight than he otherwise would be because they’re going to make him brave with their encouragement and loud applause. What we’ll be seeing is the food being brought to the shark-like Golovkin to eat up in this fight.
Brook had all he could handle in his fight against Shawn Porter in 2014. No matter how Brook’s fans and promoter Eddie Hearn wants to whitewash his performance against Porter, the fact of the matter is that Brook was out of his depth in that fight and had to hold over 10 times per round in order to keep from getting battered. Hearn calls it clever what Brook did, but what he was really doing was bending the rules by clinching nonstop and the elderly referee working the fight didn’t do what he should have done to take points off for the holding.
Brook can’t go back to that tired old game plan to use against Golovkin because it won’t work. Golovkin knows how to defeat guys that clinch to slow the fight down to a crawl. If Brook tries that plan against Golovkin, he’ll get embarrassed and be seen as not willing to fight. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brook gets booed out of the ring if he elects to hold all night long. Besides that, the holding won’t work against GGG because he knows how to stop guys form using holding as a tactic.
We already saw Brook’s fellow countryman Martin Murray try nonstop holding against Golovkin last year, and it didn’t work. It just lead to Murray getting nailed with big shots and forced to change tactics. Murray went from holding to running. That was his Plan-B that he used in that fight when his Plan-A of holding failed to work. My guess is Brook’s Plan-A will be nonstop holding as well. It’s what worked against him against his best opponent of his career in his fight against Porter, so I expect him to go back to that tired old plan hoping it can be successful against Golovkin. It won’t be successful. It’ll be a fail.