Golovkin’s trainer expects Brook to bully GGG

By Boxing News - 08/28/2016 - Comments

Image: Golovkin’s trainer expects Brook to bully GGG

By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Abel Sanchez sees IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s recent weight gain as a sure sign that he’s going to attempt to use his weight to bully IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in their fight on September 10.

Sanchez sees Brook, who recently weighed in at 176lbs for the 30-day weigh-in, trying to use his size to muscle GGG with clinching and other wrestling techniques to shut down his offense the way he did with Shawn Porter. Sanchez doesn’t think it’s going to work at all. He says that if Brook attempts to bully Golovkin, it’ll be a great fight but it’ll end with a knockout for his fighter.

“I think he’s a good fighter. The fact that he’s 36-0, and probably the best welterweight in the world,” said Sanchez to UCN about Kell Brook. He’s an all-around good fighter. I don’t think he’s the biggest puncher. When he came in at 176 for the 30-day weigh-in, it’s kind of indicative to me that’s what they intend to do [bully Golovkin]. In that case, we’re going to be treated to a great fight and great knockout,” said Sanchez.

I don’t think Sanchez realizes what an expert clincher Brook is. If he saw how good he is at grabbing and tying up his opponents to keep them from fighting, he would be more worried. Unless Golovkin takes a step back each time Brook dives in for a clinch, it’s going to be difficult for him to get his shots off. I mean, I’m not expecting the referee to do the right thing in taking points away from Brook for turning the fight into a non-boxing affair.

I don’t see that happening. When a fighter chooses to turn the fight into a wrestling match, the referee is supposed to do his job and take points and/or disqualify them the way that Henry Akinwande was disqualified in his fight against Lennox Lewis for excssive clinching, but with a lot of the referees forgetting the rules about excessive clinching, we could see Brook getting away with that on September 10 in the Golovkin fight.

It’s quite possible that Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle watched Golovkin’s last defeat in the 2004 Olympics to Russia’s Garydarbek Garydarbekov and come to the conclusion that roughing up Triple G in the clinches is the ideal way to beat him. Garydarbekov used a lot of clinching and wrestling of Golovkin to tire him out and keep him from throwing punches. Garydarbekov was grabbing Golovkin all throughout that fight, and it looked more like a wrestling match than actual fight. Garydarbekov would land a shot and fall into a clinch to keep Golovkin from throwing anything back. This is what Brook did against Shawn Porter in their fight in 2014. Brook obviously knows how to use this strategy, so it’s expected that he’ll fall back to that trick for the Golovkin fight. The fact that Brook has bulked up to 176 pretty much confirms that he’s going to try and wrestle Golovkin and use the punch, grab and wrestle technique all night long.

With the fight taking place in the UK, it’s very unlikely in view that the referee working the contest will do anything to keep Brook from grabbing Golovkin repeatedly all night long to stall out the fight. As such, it’s going to be up to Golovkin to figure out how to deal with all the holding if he wants a chance to win.

When asked if Brook is the best fighter that Golovkin will ever have faced, Sanchez said, “I think this is the most accomplished fighter to date.”

I don’t agree with Sanchez about Brook being the most accomplished fighter to date. I see Kassim Ouma and David Lemieux as being more accomplished fighters. The only thing that Brook did was clinch his way to a controversial decision win over Porter in 2014. I thought Brook should have been disqualified in that fight for his excessive holding, which was really him fouling up the fight. Since winning the IBF title, Brook has defended the belt three times against very, very weak opposition in Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin. I don’t see any of those fighters as being deserving of a top 15 ranking at 147, and yet the International Boxing Federation and Dan and bizier ranked No.1 and Gavin ranked in the top 10. That’s sad ranking if you ask me. As far as Brook having accomplished anything at welterweight, I don’t see accomplishment other than his foul-filled holding performance against Porter. The rest of Brook’s fights during his career have come against weak opposition. I don’t blame Sanchez for him thinking that Brook is an accomplished fighter, because he probably hasn’t studied his past fights like I have. If he did, he would likely arrive at the same opinion that I have about Brook’s resume being filled with fluff opposition and his accomplishments being minimal.