By Scott Gilfoid: It didn’t take long for the tickets to get scooped up by fans for the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Kell Brook fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The tickets for September 10th Golovkin-Brook fight sold out within 12 minutes of going on sale. That’s pretty incredible, and it shows the amount of interest that fans have in the fight in the UK.
The hype hasn’t been nearly as high in the U.S among the casual boxing fans, because they still have no idea about the match-up. It’s the hardcore boxing fans in the U.S that are avidly following the news on the fight. For the most part, it’s seen as another Amir Khan vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight despite the positive press about Brook.
I hate to say it, but Brook is still see as the sacrificial lamb for Golovkin to slaughter. A big part of that is because of Brook’s thin resume as a welterweight. He’s only fought one good fighter in Shawn Porter, and he barely beat him two years ago using frequent holding for 12 rounds.
Fans have spoken #GolovkinBrook sells out in 12 minutes @TheO2 @SkySportsBoxing @HBOboxing, 3rd straight sold out GGG fight #NY #LA #London
— Tom Loeffler (@TomLoeffler1) July 15, 2016
This is pretty impressive with the speed of the ticket sales for the Golovkin-Brook fight, because it shows how much interest there is from the British boxing public. But what it also indicates is there could wind up being a lot of pay-per-view buys from Sky Box Office on the night. This is a good thing for both fighters because it will mean more money, and a greater chance of them facing each other a second time if the fight is competitive and/or has a controversial ending.
Right now, Golovkin is a heavy favorite to win the fight simply because he’s the bigger guy and arguably the more talented of the two. Besides never having been beaten before in his 12-year pro career, Golovkin has knocked out every opponent he’s faced in his last 22 fights. Many of the fights have been world title fights. Golovkin isn’t just padding is record against fodder guys like what we’ve been seeing with Brook though much of his career. That’s the whole problem with Brook. There are too many poor opponents on his resume. Look at the names: Frankie Gavin, Matthew Hatton, Vyacheslav Senchenko, Alvaro Robles, Hector David Saldivia, Carson Jones, Luis Galarza, Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan, Philip Kotey, Lovemore Ndou and Michael Jennings. Fighting those guys in the first year of Brook’s career wouldn’t have been a big deal, but those fights have all come in the last six years of his career. That’s pretty sad if you ask me. There’s WAY too much fodder opposition on Brook’s resume, which is what I see it as totally padded.
You can’t give Brook a chance of winning the fight against Golovkin because he doesn’t have the experience to beat him. The only good fighter Brook has faced was Shawn Porter, and he held him all night long and didn’t really beat him in the traditional sense. He “gamed him” by holding 24/7 to turn the fight into a stifling fight.