Golovkin vs. Brook: Kell says he’s taking GGG’s belts

By Boxing News - 08/30/2016 - Comments

Image: Golovkin vs. Brook: Kell says he's taking GGG's belts

By Dan Ambrose: It’s understood by all that Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is the favorite against Kell Brook going into their fight in less than two weeks from now on September 10, but Brook doesn’t care that he’s the underdog. He says he’s got the talent to pull off the upset and shock the boxing world by beating the 34-year-old Triple G and taking his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles in their fight at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Brook hasn’t given away his special game plan for the fight as of yet, but he has let leak the fact that he plans on using movement to stifle GGG’s offense. Just how much movement Brook plans on using is the big question.

Finding a way to win means that Brook will be attempting a number of different things when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin on September 10. Standing in the pocket and punching with the Kazakhstan fighter might not be the wise thin for Brook to try and do for this fight.
“I’m very confident and I’m big, strong and heavy. I’m ready to rip into Golovkin,” said Brook to skysports.com. “I will find a way to win. These fighters who’ve been in with him have already lost before they went in.”

Brook isn’t giving Golovkin too much credit for him having a lot of talent, punching power, and a great game plan for his past fights. By Brook saying that Golovkin is winning just because his opponents have mentally lost before they entered the ring suggests that he doesn’t see any other reason for Golovkin to have won his 35 fights other than through intimidation.

There has to have been some of the guys that Golovkin has faced that were confident in their own ability before the stepped into the ring. Willie Monroe Jr. appeared to be very confident before fighting Golovkin last year, and he still lost the fight. Monroe Jr. was in trouble early in the fight in getting dropped twice in the 2nd round.

“From round one, he’s going to know he’s in a fight. He’s going to see the strength, determination and the will to win to capture all those belts that he’s got,” said Brook. “No British fighter in history has got a win like this one. Every single day I’m pushing myself to get this win.”

Former EBU junior middleweight champion Ryan Rhodes feels that Brook needs to grab a hold of Golovkin at every opportunity early in the fight to try and frustrate him as much as possible to get him out of his game early. Rhodes thinks that if Brook can get Golovkin frustrates, he can get an edge against him. Rhodes says that Brook needs to hit Golovkin with hard shots early in the fight to get his respect, and then go use his superior conditioning to take control over the fight in the last part of the contest.

If Brook really wants to make Golovkin feel like he’s in a fight, then he’s going to need to punch with him early. He can’t make Golovkin feel like he’s in a fight if he chooses to follow Rhodes’ advice of holding him to frustrate him. The way to make Golovkin feel like he’s in a fight is by throwing punches to show that he and beat him at his own game. That’s going to be hard for Brook to do, because Golovkin punches so hard. Golovkin is hoping that Brook will punch with him early so that he can unload his big power shots.

Golovkin will be ready for Brook if he chooses to hold like he did in the Shawn Porter fight. If that’s Brook’s only plan in trying to win the fight, then he’s going to be out of luck on September 10, because Golovkin has already been preparing for Brook to try and hold him all night. Brook has got to have a more original idea than that if he wants to win the fight.

“I’m going to take those belts from Gennady Golovkin – believe you me,” said Brook.

Brook has to fight a lot better than he did in the Porter fight because he barely won that fight, and that was with him holding all night. Brook will need to raise his game to a couple levels up, because if he was barely able to beat Porter by holding him all night, then he’s not going to be good enough to beat Golovkin with the same game plan.

Brook chooses to get his single shots off and then immediately try and grab Golovkin in a clinch, it’s going to cause a lot of problems, because Golovkin will be fighting through the clinch and it’s going to make Brook look like he’s holding excessively. He can’t do that and win the fight, even with it taking place in the UK. Brook must throw punches and try and beat Golovkin in a traditional fight without a spoiling game plan.