By Scott Gilfoid: Well, I had a feeling former super middleweight champion Carl Froch would come out of the woodwork to chime in about this Saturday’s fight between unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and British fighter Kell Brook, and sure enough, Froch has decided to give his thoughts about the fight.
Froch says he sparred with Brook many years ago back before he fought Andre Dirrell in 2009, and according to him, Brook gave him problems during the session. As such, Froch has extrapolated from that sparring event to reason that Brook will cause Golovkin a lot of problems this Saturday, September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
I’m not sure that I agree with Froch’s opinion, but it looks like he’s got his mind made up that Brook will cause Golovkin problems because he caused him problems six years ago. It makes zero sense to me, but if that’s what Froch wants to believe, I’m good with that.
Yeah, Froch is yapping about how he thinks Brook will give GGG the toughest fight of his career. I can’t see it. I think it’s impossible for an easy to hit guy that is as slow as Brook to cause more problems for Golovkin than Kassim Ouma did in their fight in 2011. Ouma gave Golovkin a TON of problems, but that was before he had developed what he calls his “Mexican style” of fighting.
Golovkin is a much better fighter now than he was back then, because he gets in close more now and throws a lot of body shots. Golovkin reminds me of a young Julio Cesar Chavez. He has the way of constantly pressuring his opponents and nailing them with brutal body and head shots over and over again. It doesn’t matter how much running and holding his opponents attempt to do, Golovkin catches up to them eventually and bludgeons them with body shots.
“The one thing I do know is Gennady Golovkin is in for the toughest test of his career so far. Yes, he is one of the best fighters out there, but the fact that I had him 8th in my pound-for-pound shows you I do not think he is the best around,” said Froch to skysports.com.
Oh my, Golovkin didn’t rate highly in Froch’s pound-for-pound list, so now he thinks he’ll have problems with Brook. Well, I saw Froch’s pound for pound list, and it looked like a confused mess. Heck, I could come up with a better list than that by picking the names out of a hat. We have to be objective about this, okay? So, Brook is going to get decimated in the 1st round on Saturday night, in my view. That’s me being objective.
When I look at the variables in this fight in terms of height, weight, experience, power and dare I say TALENT, Golovkin wins by a 1st round knockout. Brook doesn’t have the experience to be taking on a guy like Golovkin. That’s the entire problem for Brook. He’s got a resume built on wins over fluff opponents. Instead of fighting talents like Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Terence Crawford, Manny Pacquiao and Marcos Maidana, we’ve seen Brook fighting Matthew Hatton, Jo Jo Dan, Alvaro Robles, Vyacheslav Senchenko, Frankie Gavin and Kevin Bizier. Believe me, you do not go from fighting those mediocre fighters to facing a KO artist like Golovkin.
There’s a WHOLE bunch of guys that Brook has skipped over in making the leap to the Golovkin fight, and that’s why he’s going to get obliterated in short order on Saturday night. I mean, I really wish Brook would at least make it to the 2nd round in this contest, because I want it to be an entertaining affair for the boxing fans at the O2 Arena and for the millions of fans watching at home on their televisions, but I can’t see it happening. Brook is a knockout waiting to happen in this fight.
Overall, I just can’t see Brook making it past the 1st round on Saturday. I think Golovkin is going to have Brook staggering around the ring after hitting him hard with his first right hand. At that point, it’ll be a cinch for Golovkin to finish Brook with the old coup de grace to drop him for the 10 count. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle won’t have time to get his white towel ready to toss into the ring to have the fight stopped in my view, because I see the fight ending so quickly.
“I sparred with Kell and I did not enjoy it in the slightest,” said Froch. “We will see if Kell causes him the nightmare I had back in 2009. We will see just how good Golovkin actually is because I do think he will see some of the things I did back then.”
The one problem that I see with Froch comparing his experience with Brook with the one that her perceived Golovkin to be having this Saturday night is the fact that Golovkin is much more talented than Froch in my view. It doesn’t work to have a limited brawler like Froch comparing his experience with Brook to that of what he feels Golovkin will be having when he gets inside the ring with “Special K.”
Yeah, if Golovkin fought like Froch with his hands dangling at waste level, missing, getting hit, and having to resort to pushing Brook back 24/7, then I could see how Golovkin would have problems with him. But the reality is that Golovkin doesn’t fight like Froch. Golovkin holds his hands up to guard his head, he doesn’t miss, and doesn’t need to resort to pushing his weight to push his opponents around the ring.
Heck, Brook will probably be the heavier guy on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring with Triple G. As such, how can Golovkin try and use his size to shove Brook around. If Brook has a weight advantage of five to ten pounds, you’re definitely not going to be seeing Golovkin shove him around the ring. That’s not his style anyway. Golovkin is a technician and he doesn’t need to resort to primitive caveman tactics to get the better of his opponents.
“We will learn more about Golovkin,” said Froch. “Will he win? Here and now, I would say yes, but regardless of going up to middleweight, Kell is in a no-lose situation and I do know, and please excuse the pun, the lad is Special.”
Nah, I don’t agree that Brook is “Special” as Froch says. I think Brook loses to Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Danny Garcia and to Shawn Porter if a referee is working that controls his clinching. If Froch wants to include all those guys as “special” too, then I would agree that Brook is a special fighter. But if you’re going to use the shotgun approach to giving compliments, then it kind of loses it’s meaning, doesn’t it? You can say Brook is a “special” fighter, but if there are 10 to 20 other welterweights that are “special” too, then I guess Brook isn’t that special after all. He’s just one of the pack, and not the No. 1 or even No.2 “special” fighter in the welterweight division.
Personally, I don’t have Brook as even the No.4 fighter in the welterweight division. I think Brook can be No.1 if he’s allowed to hold. I agree with that. If Brook can clinch over 10 times per round, I think he could give fits to the top welterweights in the division by preventing them from throwing punches all night long like he did in his fight against Porter in 2014. But it takes a very permissive referee to allow that kind of holding, because it gets in the way of the actual fighting when you’ve got someone choosing to hold over and over again.