By Eric Baldwin: IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) is known for being one of the hardest punchers in the 147llb division. He’s knocked out 25 of his 36 opponents he’s faced. Brook has done this while melting down in weight from the upper 150s to make the 148lb limit. Brook is now going to be moving up to middleweight to challenge IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC 160lb champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) on September 10. Brook will have plenty of opportunities to test his power on Golovkin in this fight because the Kazakhstan fighter makes it easy for his opponents to hit him.
Brook feels that his punching power will be more than enough to hurt GGG, and cause him major problems when the two of them get inside the ring. If Brook can hurt Golovkin with his punches like he’s been doing against fighters from the welterweight division, then it means he can win. Golovkin is easy to hit and he’s not very fast.
If Brook doesn’t decide to bulk up for the fight, then he should come into the match close to 160lbs. That’s how much he weighs for his welterweight fights. However, he generally keeps his weight down during training camp sop that he doesn’t need to lose so much weight. It’s possible that Brook will weight in the low 160s for the fight. Golovkin’s weight advantage might not be more than six pounds.
“He doesn’t know how hard I punch at any weight,” said Brook to the dailymail.co.uk.
This is crucial that Brook not be outweighed by too much in this fight because he won’t be able to beat Golovkin if there’s too much of a weight difference between the two of them. After all, this isn’t Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler from 1987. Brook isn’t as fast on his feet as Leonard, and he doesn’t have the same defensive skills. Brook can be hit, and we’ve seen in the past that he can be hurt too.
“We have great respect for Brook stepping up to face Gennady when so many others have been reluctant to do so,” said Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loffler.
Brook is showing the same kind of courage in moving up to middleweight to take on a dangerous fighter that we saw recently with welterweight Amir Khan moving up from 147 to fight Saul Canelo Alvarez last May. Khan didn’t have very good luck, as he was knocked out in the 6th round by Canelo. Khan did bulk up in to the low 160s, but he was the much lighter looking fighter of the two. Canelo wasn’t weighed on the night, but he looked to be in the 170s. Golovkin will surely be in the low 170s as well against Brook.
“I cannot tell you how excited I am. I’ve worked hard with Tom for years to bring TGGG to the UK as the pound-for-pound number one fighter,” said Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn. “Now right here we have our man who is the number one welterweight against the number one middleweight. Two of the best on the planet. It’s what big time boxing is all about.”
Hearn has wanted the Brook vs. Golovkin fight since earlier this year after Brook’s win over Kevin Bizier last March. Hearn was talking about the fight back then. He finally got the chance to make the fight a reality after Chris Eubank Jr. failed to accept the contract terms.