By Scott Gilfoid: Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez sees British welterweight Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) as having a chance to pull off an upset this Saturday night on September 10 against IBF/IBO/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) in their fight at the O2 Arena in London, England.
According to Marquez, he thinks Brook is a much better technical fighter than Golovkin, and he thinks that could be an area where he takes advantage. However, Marquez notes that Golovkin has the much more powerful punch than the 30-year-old Brook, and he sees that as an area where he could have issues in this fight.
“He [Brook] has his chance, of course. At middleweight he looks stronger, heavier. I don’t know if that was his strategy or whether he was just working to get stronger,” said Marquez to ESPN Deportes.
Brook has bulked up for this fight. It’s anyone’s guess what weight Brook will come in after he rehydrates after the weigh-in. I don’t believe for a second that Brook will be under 170 on the night of the fight. As drained looking as Brook appeared at the public workout on Tuesday of this week in London, I think he’s going to be at least 175 when he steps foot inside the ring.
Brook looked really drained yesterday. He says he’s well hydrated and feeling good, but he looked just as weight drained to me that he was back when he was dehydrating to 147 to fight at welterweight. When you lose 15 to 20 pounds of water weight, it’s going to make you look drained. That’s why I think Brook was so drained looking yesterday. Brook’s real weight has got to be close to 180. My prediction is that Brook will rehydrate to 175 on the night against Golovkin, and be slow, hittable and having problems carrying all that weight around.
“He’s going to face a man with great power in his punches. I think it will be difficult for both of them. Brook has better technique and he’s a better boxer but Golovkin is stronger. In short, the technical side is much stronger for Brook but Golovkin has a lot more power,” said Marquez.
I don’t agree that Brook is the more technical fighter. I think Golovkin has better technical skills by far. The thing is you don’t see Golovkin’s great boxing skills a lot of the time, because he’s now so committed to getting knockouts. Golovkin has to take risks by being more of a slugger due to him shooting for KOs in his fights. Believe me, you don’t get a lot of knockouts if you’re focusing on just being technical.
Golovkin understands what the boxing fans want to see, and he’s willing to put his chin on the line to give them what they want. For that reason, you’re going to see Golovkin coming out and giving the fans his “drama show” to try and knock Brook out. I don’t think for a second that Brook is going to want any part of trading with Golovkin once he gets hit for the first time. All that useless muscle mass that Brook has put on for this fight is little more than adornment than it being useful weight.
The only area where Brook’s weight might help him is if he chooses to clinch and spoil for 12 rounds rather than actively fighting Golovkin. The fight contest is taking place in the UK, and if it goes the full 12 round distance, Brook might have a chance of getting a decision win. I don’t think it matters if the fight is close or not.
I think Brook will have a very, very good chance of winning if he can finish on his feet. I hate the thought of a controversial/hometown decision, but I think we might see something like that if Golovkin isn’t able to produce a knockout of Brook. It would be bad news for the sport of boxing to have Brook winning a controversial decision.
Golovkin obviously knows what he’s got himself into by agreeing to fight Brook in London, England rather than pushing for a neutral venue for the fight. But Golovkin isn’t bashful about saying that there’s no way that he’s going to let the fight go to a decision. Personally, I don’t think Golovkin has sat down and seen Brook’s fight against Shawn Porter from 2014, for if he had seen it, he would have realized that he might end up getting clinched 10+ times per round by Brook.
It’s hard to throw punches when you’re opponent Brook is grabbing you to keep you from letting your hands go. The referee is supposed to be in the ring to prevent fighters from bending the rules by clinching, throwing low blows, body slamming, and throwing rabbit shots. Unfortunately, some of the referees don’t pay much attention to excessive clinching. I mean, they’ll do a good job policing the rabbit shots and low blows, but they seem to ignore the rules that state that fighters aren’t supposed to clinch excessively.
I hope for Golovkin’s sake that he’s been working on how to keep from getting clinched over and over again by Brook, because that’s what he’s likely going to be experiencing on Saturday night. I think Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle’s Plan-A for him is to CLINCH repeatedly in each round in order to frustrate Golovkin, and limit his ability to throw punches. If this strategy doesn’t work, and I think it will if the referee is asleep at the wheel and not choosing to control the fight, then we’ll likely see Brook using a Plan-B strategy of running around the ring. Like I said, Brook just needs to survive for the full 12 rounds for him to have a chance of winning the fight by a controversial decision in my view.
“It certainly is a tougher fight for Brook – starting with the fact that GGG is a natural middleweight and throws very powerful punches to the soft parts of the body,” said Marquez.
Of course, this is a tougher fight for Brook. He’s not fighting 5’7” Shawn Porter, or the light hitting Jo Jo Dan. This is a really tough fight for Brook, because unless he can find a way to keep from getting hit in this match, he’s going to take a real pounding. That’s just the facts. Apart from Brook spoiling for 12 rounds to make it to the final bell by holding, I don’t see how he can make it out of the 1st round. He’s going to be getting hit with some devastating head and body shots from Golovkin in round one and II have no faith in Brook’s ability to take those shots without dropping for the 10 count.
Brook is a decent welterweight due to his size advantage over his opponents, but his ability to take punishment is nothing special. Brook can dish out the punishment like a grade-A fighter against the lighter welterweights, but I don’t think he’s got a great chin in taking huge blows. We saw what Carson Jones did to Brook in their first fight when hitting him with some simple right hands to the head. Brook’s beak was bleeding something awful, and he was staggering around the ring. It looked awful to watch.
We’ve never see Brook take a hard body shot before. My guess is he can’t take too many body shots without dropping for the 10 count. In the video of Brook and Liam Smith sparring on Youtube, Brook looked uneasy when Smith was giving it to him to the body. Granted, Smith is a good body puncher, and perhaps the best in the 154lb division, but he’s not at Golovkin’s level in that department in my view. I’m sure that Brook didn’t have to spar Smith for 12 rounds. Against Golovkin, Brook will be taking body shots with full impact with the lighter gloves, round after round. There won’t be anyone to save him.
It’ll be big news in the boxing world if Brook does beat Golovkin. Marquez look good with his comments about Brook having a chance, and it would set up a huge rematch between Golovkin and Brook. We can only hope that if Brook does beat Golovkin, it’s not controversial in any way, and it’s not tainted by Brook choosing to hold all night long like he did with Shawn Porter in 2014.
If Brook wins on Saturday night, I’d like to see him do in cleanly in a traditional manner by actually fighting rather than spoiling with his holding. For boxing fans that don’t understand what I’m talking about, I suggest you go back and watch Brook’s fight against Porter on Youtube. You’ll see how Brook was holding Porter nonstop in each round, and he wasn’t being penalized for it. To Brook’s credit, he’s not reverted back to form by choosing to hold his last three opponents Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin and Kevin Bizier. Those were not good fighters in my view. They were guys with inflated rankings, who I felt didn’t deserve a title shot. Brook didn’t have to hold them, because they were so over-matched.
The Golovkin-Brook fight will be televised on Sky Box Office pay-per-view in the UK, and on HBO World Championship Boxing in the United States.