Roach: Brook is too small for Golovkin

By Boxing News - 07/26/2016 - Comments

Image: Roach: Brook is too small for Golovkin

By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it seems that it doesn’t really matter that welterweight Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) is reportedly weighing 178 pounds right now and is heavier than IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs). The general consensus is that Brook is just too little to be fighting Golovkin, and will be knocked out on September 10 when the two of them fight each other at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Trainer Freddie Roach also believes that the 30-year-old Brook is just too small to have a chance of beating Triple G. Roach sees the Golovkin vs. Brook fight as very similar to the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Amir Khan fight that took place last May. I bet that doesn’t make Brook feel too good in seeing himself being mentioned in the same light as welterweight Khan, because the hulking super middleweight-sized Canelo knocked him out in the 6th round.

Khan moved up from welterweight to challenge Canelo at a catch-weight at 155lbs for his WBC middleweight crown. While it was a nice gesture by Canelo to agree to fight Khan at a 155lb catch-weight, it was an empty one because he looked huge after he rehydrated after making weight. There are some who think that Canelo weighed 180 pounds on the night against Khan. Never the less, Khan was always going to be in trouble against the big punching Canelo no matter what weight the popular Mexican fighter came in at.

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“Like Amir Khan when knocked out by Canelo Alvarez. Brook is too small,” said Roach to the dailymail.co.uk. “Kell Brook has no shot at beating Gennady Golovkin.”

It’s hard to disagree with Roach, because Brook is so out of his league in this fight that it’s not even funny. I mean, I could maybe give Brook a slight chance of winning against Golovkin if he proved that he’s the best fighter in the 147lb division by facing and beating Errol Spence, Tim Bradley, and Keith Thurman, as well as beating Shawn Porter without nonstop holding.

Brook didn’t do any of that. He beat Porter by holding him over and over again with a referee not doing what he was supposed to do in penalizing Brook for the excessive holding. Besides that, I would give Brook a chance against Golovkin if he beat the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara and Demetrius Andrade at 154. Further, I would give Brook a chance if he beat middleweight Daniel Jacobs, Tureano Johnson, Ryota Murata, and Maciej Sulecki.

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Since Brook hasn’t beaten any of those guys, I think he’s stepping into the unknown without the required experience needed for him to be competitive against GGG. Brook is going from beating the likes of Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin to fighting the best in the middleweight division in Golovkin. To be sure, it’s not Book’s fault that the International Boxing Federation made the bizarre move of ranking Jo Jo Dan and Bizier at No.1 at separate times for Brook. That was the IBF’s very weird move that ultimately made it easy for Brook to get in a couple of defenses that were the equivalent of voluntary defenses due to the low talent level of those fighters. But it was Brook’s fault that he agreed to fight Gavin.

Brook could have raised a fuss with his promoter Eddie Hearn when he first floated the idea of him fighting Gavin, but obviously he didn’t because he took the fight. What Brook should have done was insist that Hearn match him against Porter in a rematch, and face Errol Spence Jr. If Hearn could have done that, it would have helped Brook with not only the Golovkin fight but also with creating more of a name for him in the U.S. Brook is still an unknown at this point in the U.S with casual boxing fans due to the poor match-making that’s been done for him by Hearn. You don’t get popular in the U.S by beating the likes of Gavin, Jo Jo Dan and Bizier.

I think Brook will have his moments in the first two rounds against Golovkin on September 10, but the fight will end as soon as GGG decides that he wants to get Brook out of there. Once Golovkin gets bored and decides he wants to get rid of Brook, then I see him knocking him out.