By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier this week, news came out about how Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn said he was interested in matching his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) against unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin at a catch-weight of 157lbs.
At the time, many boxing fans felt that Hearn was just name-dropping in order to attract interest in Brook’s fight this Saturday night against #1 IBF contender Kevin Bizier (25-2, 17 KOs), who Brook will be facing at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK. There are rumors that the fight failed to sell out.
Mentioning Golovkin’s name as someone that Brook could fight next, might be something that could trigger a stampede for the remaining tickets for the Sheffield Arena. Well, Brook is still talking about wanting to fight Golovkin, and yeah, Brook wants a catch-weight handicap somewhere in the middle between 155 and 160.
If Brook is serious about really wanting to fight Golovkin, then he would appear to have little chance of getting the fight, period. Golovkin has bigger fish to fry then fighting little known welterweights, who the casual boxing fans in the United States are not familiar with.
Brooks condition that the fight with Golovkin take place at a catch-weight is virtually the kiss of death for the fight happening. Golovkin is not going to give a handicap with weight to anybody right now. Brook is too small of a name for Golovkin to entertain the idea of fighting him at a catch-weight.
“No one wants to go near Gennady Golovkin,” said Brook to IFL TV. “I’m saying live on camera, I will fight Golovkin. If we can come to a decision on weight, I’ll get in with Golovkin, and I’ll show you what I can really do. He’s a middleweight. I’m a welterweight. We’ve got to meet somewhere in the middle. That’s what we’d do if we sat around the table and sorted the weight out. We’d get in with Golovkin and show you what I can really do. I rise to the occasion every time. Believe you me, if I got in there with Golovkin, I’d go in there to win. Those are the names [Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao] I want, and those are the names I’m desperate for, and those are the names I’m getting. I’m going to get rid of Bizier, then I’m going to move on to exciting fights. I’ve got so many voluntaries until my mandatory comes around again. I’m going to make full use of that by [promoter] Eddie Hearn getting the best fights out there, and matching me up with those top names for the fights they want to see. Even if it means moving up, I’m willing to move up,” said Brook.
If Brook and Golovkin did fight each other, I think Brook would be in worse condition than some of the other recent opponents Golovkin has faced. Brook’s fighting style would likely lead to him getting taken out faster than many of Golovkin’s recent opponents in Martin Murray, Willie Monroe Jr., and David Lemieux.
You can make a strong argument that Brook would lose to all of those fighters. They’re all bigger than him, and probably have more power. I can’t see Brook punching as hard as Lemieux, and we saw what happened to Lemieux when he fought Golovkin. It was totally one-sided with Golovkin taking Lemieux out in the 8th round last October.
Brook is also interested in fighting Miguel Cotto. He would have to probably move up to 154 to make the fight happen, however. Not surprisingly, Brook isn’t asking for a catch-weight handicap against Cotto. I guess he must feel that if he even hinted at a catch-weight for that fight, he would lose the fight straightaway with Cotto walking away from the negotiation table. The reality is that Brook doesn’t have the bargaining power to get catch-weight handicaps against either Cotto or Golovkin.
The fact that Brook is asking one for the Golovkin fight shows how ham-handed his negotiation skills are. You don’t try and call the shots against fighters that are on a higher perch than you, and that’s exactly what Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn are doing with Golovkin. They’re both showing their inexperience at negotiating with the big time fighters with that move.
Instead of saying in the media that Golovkin would need to fight at a catch-weight in order to get the fight, Hearn and Brook should be bowing down to please Golovkin by saying they’re willing to fight him at the full weight. That’s the way you get a big money fight against a talent like Golovkin. You don’t try and set up hoops that he, the more popular fighter, has to leap through in order to fight you. When you do stuff like that, it just tells you that you’re either not serious about getting the fight, or you’re clueless about your position in relation to Golovkin. It also shows that you don’t know how to negotiate a fight properly with a bigger name.
Could you imagine Brook and Hearn telling the media that they would fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. only if he agreed to fight them at a catch-weight. Just by mentioning that in the media, it would cause Mayweather to lose all interest in the fight, not that he would have any for a small name like Brook.
“Cotto is a legend, a warrior,” said Brook. “To put my name besides his,” said Brook. “I’ve watched him so many times on the tele. He’s the name in boxing. To get in there and fight him is exactly what I want. I think all the world would be excited about that fight,” said Brook.
There’s definitely not going to be a fight between Cotto and Brook. There’s no money in it for Cotto to take on someone like Brook. Cotto needs to fight on HBO PPV in order to bring in huge money in the States, and you cannot sell a Cotto-Brook fight in the U.S on PPV. If Cotto is going to raid the welterweight division for opponents for his summer fight, he’s probably going to look to fight a well-known welterweight that the U.S fans are familiar with like Danny Garcia or Tim Bradley rather than an unknown like Brook.
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