By Scott Gilfoid: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) says he thought it was funny some of the negative comments former super middleweight champion Carl Froch made about him this past in the media. Froch apparently said that Golovkin needs to move up in weight and fight guys his own size despite the fact that he’s a small middleweight that could actually fight at 154lb if he wanted to.
Golovkin said that he thinks Froch talks too much and that he’s a clown. Golovkin has no interested in fighting Froch right now because he sees him as finished and retired from boxing. Golovkin’s main focus is on his September 10 fight against Britain’s Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Golovkin was surprised at Brook weighing 176 pounds for their recent 30-day World Boxing Council mandated weight check. Golovkin thinks the weight is too heavy, and he doesn’t think it’s going to help the 30-year-old Brook win.
“Carl recently said he’s disappointed in your, and that he feels should pick on someone your own size and you should move up in weight,” said Michele Phelps to Golovkin in telling him about Froch criticizing him this past week. “What do you think about that?”
Golovkin then said, “Not much. Carl’s a good fighter. Right now, he’s finished. Right now, he’s too much talking. This is very interesting. It’s very funny for me. This is his style, you know. Right now, I have fight with Kell Brook. It was a big surprise.
I’ve seen him and he’s a little big. [He’s] shorter than me. He’s big. He still looks strong. 30 days before the fight and he’s 176. It doesn’t really matter. Two, three, four divisions down. Right now, he’s at the weight of 176. I know this is maybe too much for him. I think it’s not easy for us because we have a lot of time to prepare for performance. I think it’s a huge fight for us,” said Golovkin.
No one knows really why Froch is flapping his gums all of a sudden about his thoughts on Golovkin. Froch had the chance to fight Golovkin after his second fight against George Groves, but he chose to retire rather than taking that fight. Froch could have made a huge amount of money fighting Golovkin before walking away from the sport, but instead he chose to retire. Some boxing fans think Froch was scared. I guess only he knows why he chose not to fight GGG.
As far as why Froch is suddenly talking about Golovkin, it’s possible that he’s rallying around fellow countryman Brook by showing his support of a fellow Brit. Whatever the case, it’s not going to help Brook unless Froch is inside the ring on the night and can run interference to keep Golovkin from getting at Brook.
When asked if he wants to knockout Brook, Golovkin said, “I hope. I know how. I hope. This is boxing. Kell Brook is a good fighter I saw, he’s very good. [He’s got a] different mentality, different style, different personality.”
Yes, there’s a very good chance that Golovkin will knockout Brook in this fight no matter what he does. Brook’s strategy for the fight will come down to the following plans:
A. Brook holds all night long and tries to keep Golovkin from punching his lights out. This is the strategy that Brook used against Shawn Porter in their fight in 2014. That strategy will be a fail though because Golovkin knows how to defeat clinchers like Brook. We already saw Martin Murray try and clinch Golovkin nonstop in their fight last year, and it didn’t work.
B. Brook will try and run from Golovkin for 12 rounds, and hope that he can land enough pot shots to steal a decision. That strategy won’t work either because Golovkin is so good at cutting off the ring on his opponents. Running never works against Golovkin.
C. Brook might try and go straight at Golovkin and slug it out for as long as humanly possible. This would be one of those cases where Brook is fighting for survival. It would be heroic on Brook’s part if he fights in this manner, because he’ll take less criticism afterwards from the boxing fans after he gets knocked out. The fans will think Brook was brave by choosing to stand and fight. Unfortunately for Brook, Golovkin will only knock him out faster if he tries to slug with him for any length of time. It makes Brook look better if he punches with him, because I think he’s going to lose the fight anyway. But it makes Brook look a heck of a lot better in the minds of the boxing public if he’s willing to go down swinging rather than if he chooses to run from the battle field or hold all night long like he did against Shawn Porter. It was so awful to look at Brook’s ugly holing in the Porter fight. A good referee would have taken off points from Brook first after repeated warnings, and then disqualified him for his nonstop holding. The referee that was working the fight that night just let it go on in a laissez faire approach to controlling the holding. In other words, the referee stood back and let things take their own course, without stepping in to interfere with Brook’s nonstop holding.
“Carl Froch is talking too much,” said Golovkin. “Chris Eubank is talking too much. Of course, Kell Brook, he’s a great fighter. He’s from the UK. I’m bringing to the UK my style.”
When asked if he’d like to fight Froch, Golovkin said, “No, he’s finished. He’s finished. It’s not an interesting fight right now. [Froch is doing] too much talking. He’s like a clown. It’s very good for TV. He’s not an athlete. If he comes back, we’re talking. I am ready 100 percent. II promise big show,” said Golovkin.
Oh my, Golovkin calling Froch a clown for him blabbering about him. I don’t think this is going to get Froch back into the ring though to fight Triple G. I mean, if Froch wasn’t interested in fighting Golovkin two years ago after he got done knocking out an overmatched and inexperienced George Groves for the second time, then I sure as heck don’t see Froch coming back now that he’s been out of the ring for two solid years. Froch has packed on a lot of muscles since he’s been out of the ring and it’s going to take a lot of hard work for him to lose the muscles to get back down to 168. I can’t see Froch even bothering with contemplating a rematch even though it would make him a ton of money.
Golovkin doesn’t need to move up in weight and fight guys his own size, because the guys his own size are fighting pretty much in the junior middleweight division, not the super middleweight division. The top 154lb fighters are all weighing in the low 170s like Golovkin. Since those guys are fighting at junior middleweight, then why should Golovkin have to move up all the way to 168 to fight guys that are NOT his own size? I get the feeling that there are a lot of people that want to see Golovkin fail. The best way to make him fail is to ask him to fight against bigger fighters at super middleweight.