By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla likes the talent that unbeaten welterweight Kell Brook possesses, but he believes he’s going to have a real tough fight on his hands next week in his title challenge against unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10. Brook is moving up two weight classes to fight Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOS) at the O2 Arena in London, England.
While Brook has put on a great deal of weight and is actually out-weighing GGG at the moment, he still figures to be hopelessly over-matched when he gets inside the ring on September 10. Brook hasn’t had the right preparation to get him ready for this fight unless you consider sparring with domestic level fighter Liam Williams as preparation for Golovkin.
I certainly don’t see that as adequate preparation for a fight against a talent like Golovkin. You can’t count Brook’s fights against Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan or Frankie Gavin as preparation either. Those guys have just helped Brook eat up two years of his pro career, which is kind of sad really. To burn up two years of your career fighting those guys is a waste in my view. Brook has seen two years gone and nothing to show for it.
“He is the underdog and it is a really big ask but anyone who knows Kell, or has trained alongside Kell, will know how talented he is,” said Crolla to skysports.com. “He is going to need more than that next Saturday but it’s a fight I can’t wait to see. You only have to look at all the world champions we’ve got and I feel blessed to be part of that.”
Crolla is really pouring on the compliments for Brook. It’s too bad that the compliments won’t change the outcome in the fight. Crolla can keep slathering on the compliments every which way in saying how good Brook is, but when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin, the outcome will likely be disastrous for him. Unless Crolla wants to jump inside the ring with Brook to run interference to keep Golovkin off of him, he’s going to be in big trouble in this fight.
I don’t think it really matters how talented Brook is. He’s still up against it in this fight because of how much more talented Golovkin is compared to him. Heck, even if Golovkin wasn’t as talented as Brook, he would still be the one holding all the cards in this fight due to his monstrous punching power. Golovkin is like a slower version of Julian Jackson. He doesn’t have Jackson’s hand speed, but he definitely has power. That’s the whole problem in a nutshell for Brook.
Golovkin could have two left feet and be totally uncoordinated, but once he lands something, he’s going to hurt Brook wherever his punches land. Yep, once Golovkin nails Brook with something hard on September 10, it won’t matter how talented he is. Brook is going to go down and likely stay down. If he gets up, it’s only going to be worse for him, because then Golovkin will finish him off with the coup de grace.
“To have a pound-for-pound star like Golovkin coming over here shows the strength of British boxing – and not just the boxing, but the fans. The atmosphere they create is like no other,” said Crolla.
Yeah, Golovkin vs. Brook is definitely a big fight for the UK. There will be 20,000 fans showing up on the night to cheer on Brook at the O2 Arena in London, England. Brook won’t be lacking for support in this fight. I just don’t think it’s going to do much other than give him a temporary shot of adrenalin, which will soon go away once he’s hit hard to the body by Golovkin. As soon as the painful reality of what Brook is up against dawns on him, I see him resorting to his spoiling tactics to try and go into survival mode. I see it being a full scale retreat on Brook’s part, as he tries to scurry away from Golovkin to survive somehow. I just don’t think it’s going to work.
When a fighter loses his senses completely due to him being hurt or totally confused with fear, they’re basically just trying to survive rather than focusing on winning the fight. That’s where Brook will be at on September 10 after he gets hurt early by Triple G. Golovkin will have Brook at his mercy at that point and will pick him off as he pleases with power shots until he put him out of his misery with a big body or head shot.
Crolla will be defending his WBA lightweight title this month against Jorge Linares (40-3, 27 KOs) on September 24 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Many of Crolla’s boxing fans believe he’ll beat Linares as he recently did against the 33-year-old Ismael Barroso last May and Darleys Perez last November. The problem with pipe dream is that Linares is MUCH better than Perez and Barroso, so it kind of doesn’t matter that Crolla was able to beat those two easy marks.
Linares is next level fighter, and he’s probably going to be knocking Crolla out, I hate to say. I mean, Crolla is a decent fighter, but he’s clearly not at the level as guys like Linares or Mikey Garcia. Let’s be honest here. It’s fanatic that Crolla was able to beat Barroso and Perez, but those are really lower level fighters in my opinion and nothing like Linares or Garcia or even Terry Flanagan. As such, I expect Crolla to be knocked out on September 24 in front of his own fans at the Manchester Arena. There’s nothing wrong with Crolla getting beaten just as long as he gives it a good college try. Crolla has my sympathy.
“Linares is the sort of fighter young fighters can learn from, but I do believe I can expose his weaknesses and there are chinks in the armor that I think I and my team have seen, so we will take advantage of,” said Crolla.
Crolla’s problem is that he can’t punch, and he’s facing a guy with better boxing skills than him and better power. The only thing Crolla can do is use a lot of feints and throw to the body. That’s not going to be enough for him to beat Linares, I’m afraid. It won’t be nearly enough.