Kell Brook packing on useless muscle weight

By Boxing News - 08/11/2016 - Comments

Image: Kell Brook packing on useless muscle weight

By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook is showing the boxing world how to royally mess up a title shot against the talented Gennady “GGG” Golovkin by packing on a mess of useless muscle weight in preparation for their September 10 fight at the O2 Arena in London, England. Brook is almost 30 pounds heavier right now than he weighed in for his last fight against the over-matched Kevin Bizier last March. That’s a ton of weight to put on in such a short period of time.

Brook has somehow come to the conclusion that the best way for him to compete against the devastating puncher Golovkin is by power feeding and adding muscle weight in a hurry for their fight, which is only four weeks away. If this fight were a body-building or wrestling competition, then it would make sense for Brook to be bulking up for the fight the way he’s doing.

Brook would be a real problem for Golovkin if this were body building or a competition of which person has the best beach body. Unfortunately for Brook, this is boxing, and you’ve got to have muscles that are useful for the sport.

We saw on Wednesday that Brook’s wrong-headed ideas have his weight skyrocketing at 176lbs for the WBC’s mandated 30-day weigh-in for the fight. Brook barely made the WBC’s maximum allowable weight limit, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he probably weighs a heck of a lot higher than the 176lbs he weighed in yesterday. As such, we’re likely to see Brook waddle into the ring in the 180s on September 10, thinking he’ll be able to compete with Golovkin on an even playing field with his weight advantage over him.

I expect that Brook will be massacred in one round by Golovkin on September 10. I think there’s going to be a lot of unhappy Brook fans wondering what happened to their hero. There’s no way that the heavy looking Brook is going to be able to compete against Golovkin with the way he’s looking now. As far as I’m concerned, Brook looked like a fattened up Thanksgiving turkey. Brook is way too heavy the way is right now, and he has the look of someone that has been gorging and drinking a lot of water. I think Brook is going to have a hard time making it out of the 1st round on September 10. I just hope he learns a lesson from this fight and doesn’t make this same mistake in the future. If Brook’s trainer is the one that planted the idea into his head to bulk up like this, then he needs to think about giving him the royal boot and look for a trainer with some sensible ideas in preparing for fighters like GGG.

While some boxing fans think Brook looked in fantastic shape, I think he’s heading for trouble big time against Golovkin. Even if Brook wasn’t bloating himself with food and likely weight training exercises, he’s going to be over-matched physically. Brook is too short at 5’9”, too robotic and his arms are too short for him to fight Triple G and win. Brook’s lack of reach could be the real killer for him when it comes to competing in this fight. When Brook reaches out with his short arms, he’s going to be hitting air all night long.

Well, it’s not going to be an all-night type of affair if Brook can’t land because he’s going to be getting hit bulldozed by Golovkin’s big power shots. Brook does not have a great chin. Some people mistakenly believe that Brook has a great chin, but it’s clearly not the case. The only reason why it appears that Brook has a great chin is because he’s faced so many poor fighters in his 12-year pro career.

If you remove all the fodder opposition from Brook’s resume, you’re really left with just Shawn Porter. As such, Brook’s career record is 1-0, not 36-0, because 35 of those opponents were guys like Alvaro Robles, Matthew Hatton, Jo Jo Dan, Kevin Bizier, and Frankie Gavin. I saw Brook get staggered by Vyacehslav Senchenko in 2012, and badly hurt to the point of being on the verge of a KO in his first fight against Carson Jones. Those guys are not in the same universe as Golovkin in terms of power. If Brook can’t even take the power shots from Senchenko and Carson Jones without getting hurt, then it doesn’t bode well for him against Golovkin. That’s why I think this fight won’t get past the 1st round. Brook’s chin is too fragile and he’s blowing any chance he has by bloating up into the 170s and 180s instead of staying lean like Golovkin, who weighed in at 165lbs during the 30-day weigh-in last Wednesday.

You can tell that Brook has put on too much weight by looking at his midsection, because it’s sticking out in the way that you see for someone that has been eating a lot. I’m used to seeing Brook looking toned and in shape. It’s a new thing to see him having a full look like he just ate a huge dinner.

I must say that it’s probably too late for him now, because I think he’s beyond the point of no return. Even if Brook tried to take off all that useless weight, I don’t think he’ll be able to make a dent in it in just four weeks. You can’t look at the bulky weight that Brook has packed on in just four weeks, even if he wanted to.

I don’t think he wants to though. I expect Brook to keep packing the pounds on for the next three weeks until the week of the fight. At that point, he’ll need to dehydrate in a major way to get down to 160. If he doesn’t make weight, the fight will still go ahead, but he won’t have a chance to win Golovkin’s IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles. It’s unclear if Brook cares about those straps or not. Who knows? Brook might be more concerned with trying to crush Golovkin with his weight and won’t care about trying to make weight for the fight. There is probably a small weight penalty that Brook would have to eat if he fails to make weight, but it won’t be a big deal.