By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) came in at 162.9 pounds for the World Boxing Council’s mandated 7-day weigh-in for his match on September 10 against challenger Kell “Special K” Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England. For his part, Brook weighed in five pounds heavier at 167.8lbs.
This is nine pounds lighter than Brook weighed during the 30-day check weigh, when he came in at 176lbs. With a week to go before the fight, it’s unlikely that Brook will be trimming much more weight off other than water weight to get down to the 160lb limit for the fight. Believe me, Brook is going to be as big as a house when he walks out there to start exchanging blows with Golovkin on September 10, so don’t be fooled by his current weight of just 167. My guess is Brook will be in the 180s when he gets in there.
This is a lot of weight that Brook is still carrying around with him. My guess is Brook is still in the mid-170s, but that he took some extra water weight off already to start the process of getting down to 160 to make weight. If Brook is weighing 176, then he would have needed to start draining down already last week to get to 160.
You don’t want to try and lost 16 pounds two days before the fight or even a week before the fight. When you’re dealing with a fighter weighing in the 175lb region, you have got to start losing the weight a week before the fight if you don’t want to miss the weight. Brook obviously wants to make sure he doesn’t blow the weigh-in because it would look bad.
“He’s not going to be smaller than Golovkin. He’s going to be bigger than Golovkin, even by fight time,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez to skysports.com. “My question will he be able to take the power for the full 12 rounds? I don’t think so.”
Is Sanchez kidding? Of course, Brook is going to out-weigh Golovkin on the night of the fight on September 10. I think it’s academic at this point that Brook is going to be coming in at least five pounds heavier than Golovkin, maybe even more than that. Brook, 30, has completely bulked up from welterweight to take the fight, and now he’s currently heavier than GGG. That weight isn’t going to go anywhere, believe me. Brook will come into the fight probably in the 180s, and wind up getting taken apart piece by piece by Golovkin.
No Fear. 🇬🇧 #8daystogo #GGGBrook pic.twitter.com/Afs13r58hB
— Kell Brook (@SpecialKBrook) September 2, 2016
“I finally got someone in the ring with Golovkin who he believes belongs there with him,” said Sanchez. “We’re fighting an undefeated fighter who doesn’t know how to lose or get hurt and is knocking everyone out just like Golovkin.”
Yeah, Brook doesn’t know how to lose, but he also hasn’t ever fought anyone good before except for Shawn Porter, who he held all night long in 2014. You can’t really say Brook beat Porter. He clinched him, yes, but beating him? Nah, there was no real beating involved with that fight. It was just a bunch of holding by Brook for 12 rounds in one of the most boring fights I’ve ever seen before. At some point the referee needed to get on his J-O-B and take points away from Brook for his excessive holding, but he didn’t do it. Of course, Brook wasn’t going to stop holding if the referee didn’t make him stop.
Just because Brook is cocky and overconfident doesn’t mean he’s going to be competitive with Golovkin. Heck, Brook has always been an extremely confident fighter, and you can understand why. With all the fodder opposition his different promoters have fed Brook, he doesn’t realize his own limitations as a fighter. Brook is so used to fighting weak fighters that he doesn’t understand that he’s not as good as he thinks he is.
With all the fodder opponents that have been tossed into the ring with Brook, it’s planted ideas into his head, making him think he’s better than he actually is. All Golovkin is going to be doing on September 10 is bringing Brook back down to earth by giving him a reality check by showing him that he’s not that good of a fighter. Once you take away Brook’s nonstop clinching that he uses to keep his opponents from throwing punches, he’s very average. I just want to see what Brook does on the night when his frequent clinching fails to shutdown Golovkin’s offense. Goodness knows, I’m not counting on the referee to lift a finger to keep Brook from grabbing Golovkin any chance he can get. It’s going to be up to Golovkin to step back each time Brook reaches out to hold him. Golovkin will need to step back and nail Brook at the same time while his arms are outstretched for an attempted embrace. Golovkin needs to make sure this is a boxing match, not a stand up wrestling fight like we saw with the Brook vs. Shawn Porter match in 2014.