Golovkin-Brook official scorecards

By Boxing News - 09/12/2016 - Comments

Image: Golovkin-Brook official scorecards

By Scott Gilfoid: The judges’ scores for last Saturday’s fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) looked kind of crazy to me. Brook’ promoter Eddie Hearn posted the judges’ scorecards and it showed that two of the judges had the fight dead even after four rounds with them each scoring it 38-38, and the third judge shockingly had Brook ahead by a 39-37 score after four rounds. In other words, this judge had Brook winning 3 rounds to 1 at the time of the stoppage.

Frankly, I’m baffled how a judge could see the same Golovkin-Brook fight that I did and have Brook up by a three to one score. That judge had Brook winning the 1st round despite the fact that he was staggered and badly hurt by Golovkin. That judge wasn’t the only one that gave round one to Brook.

There was another judge that scored the 1st round to him as well. Maybe it’s me, but when I see a fighter out on his feet the way that Brook was and in serious distress, I don’t give the round to that fighter. Maybe it’s just me? Are we supposed to score the round for the fighter that gets hurt? I figured that Golovkin would have problems being the visiting fighter going into the UK, but I didn’t think he would be trailing when he’s clearly dominating the fight.

Seeing a fighter hurt like Brook was in round one, I do not understand why the round was given to him. Brook did nothing after he was hurt for the remainder of the round. I don’t know how two of the judges gave him round one, given how bad he looked.

It would have been interesting to know what the three judges’ scores were for the 5th round had there not been a stoppage. I would have loved to have seen those scores. Brooked was getting literally pummeled by Golovkin from the start of the round until the bitter end when Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle threw the white towel of surrender into the ring. Normally you would think a one-sided round would go to Golovkin, but after seeing that two of the judges gave the 1st round to Brook after him getting staggered, I just don’t know. Maybe the judges would give round five to Brook too?

All three judges had round two going to Brook, which is good, because that was the one round where I gave to him. I thought Brook had a very good 2nd round, but only because Golovkin hadn’t ramped up his offense yet. Golovkin was trying to use his boxing skills in the 2nd round rather than tearing into Brook the way he could have.

The scoring for round three was unanimous with all three judges giving it to Golovkin. I agree with that scoring. You can’t see the third round without giving it to Golovkin, because Brook was taking head shots and running around the ring. It was awful to look at.

Brook started to run like mad in the 4th round. Golovkin was chasing Brook and nailing him with tremendous shots. Besides running, Brook did a great deal of holding in this round. Brook landed some shots, but most of the punches he threw were missing. I couldn’t give this round to Brook because he was literally running the entire round. I don’t know what two of the judges were seeing for them to give the 4th round to Brook, because Golovkin was really pasting him with shots.

In the 5th, Brook ran even more than he had in the 4th. Golovkin caught up to him at one point and hurt him with a body shot. This led to Golovkin nailing Brook with five consecutive head shots before the running started again.

All in all, I think the scoring for this fight was incredibly bad, especially with the judge that had Brook ahead by a 39-37 score. I don’t agree with that score and the other two judges that had the contest knotted up at 38-38. It’s a good thing for Golovkin that he got the knockout, because with the scoring like that, he might have lost had the fight gone to the cards. Golovkin brings his own judges with him to his fights in the form of his fists, so the three judges that worked this fight played no part in the final outcome.

I had Golovkin winning 39-37 at the time of the stoppage. I had Golovkin winning three rounds to one. I gave Golovkin the following rounds: 1, 3, 4. I gave Brook round 2. I thought Brook fought well in the 2nd round, but he did not impress me in the other rounds, and he definitely didn’t impress me in round five. Brook was running and holding in round 4 and 5. He wasn’t fighting, at least not like Golovkin. He was fighting and looking to punch holes through Brook. The shots that Brook was landing in the 4th and 5th were weak looking punches, which isn’t surprising he looked tired, hurt and under huge stress due to Golovkin attacking him all out. Brook was getting worked over by Golovkin, and he had no way of keeping him off.

Brook was able to move his head to make Golovkin miss, but he was still getting hit hard. Brook was extremely fortunate that Golovkin was throwing 90% of his punches to the body, because if he had aimed half of his shots to the body, the fight would have been over.

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez should have stressed to him in between rounds to throw more body shots, because Brook had no defense for them. He was able to make Golovkin miss a lot of head shots, but he couldn’t do anything when he was aiming his punches to the midsection. Those were the shots that really bothered Brook. If Golovkin wanted to stop brook from running, he should have thrown 90% of his punches to the body and only 10% to the head, and he would have had an easier time. I don’t think Brook would have been still around by the 5th if Golovkin had thrown mainly body shots.