Sanchez: Golovkin will KO Brook by 6th

By Boxing News - 09/10/2016 - Comments

BOXING

By Scott Gilfoid: Well, I hope Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) tries hard to impress the large throng of fans that show up tonight for his fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs), because he may not have much time to enjoy the fight before he’s blasted to smithereens by the powerful Kazakhstan fighter.

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez is predicting a quick knockout tonight with GGG splattering the 30-year-old Brook on the canvas by round six. Sanchez knows more about Golovkin and what he’s capable of doing than anyone on this earth right now, so it’s hard to discount what he’s saying. Sanchez has seen Brook in action against one of his fighters in the past in Carson Jones, who Brook twice beat. Sanchez knows what Brook is capable of, and he also is well aware of his many limitations as a fighter.

“On Saturday night, Kell is to going to recognize that a middleweight like Gennady hits a heck of a lot harder than anyone he’s ever faced,” said Sanchez. “I see Kell coming out and making a fight of it. He’s a prideful man. He’s come too far not to get his money’s worth. Gennady is going to break him down and get him out by the middle of the fight. He’s [Brook] a great fighter, but he’s going against the best middleweight in the world, and he’s probably going down as one of the best middleweights ever to put on a pair of gloves.,” said Sanchez.

Well, there it is. Golovkin is going to knockout Brook by the 6th round tonight. I can’t really disagree with anything Sanchez says about this because he’s seen Triple GGG fight so many times and spar so many times. Golovkin is going to be nailing Brook with head and body shots, and looking to wear him down with his punches. The body shots will especially be key for Golovkin, because he’ll be hitting Brook so hard with them.

It’ll be interesting to see if Brook chooses to be courageous and stand and fight Golovkin like Sanchez seems to think he will tonight rather than him spoiling. I personally disagree with Sanchez in what Brook sis going to do in this fight. I don’t think Brook gives a fig about his pride. I see him more concerned with winning at all costs. this means that I think he’s going to look to win any chance he can get, and the best way for Brook to do this is to stall out the fight by clinching, using the punch and grab technique and running around the ring for 12 rounds. If Brook can limit Golovkin’s punch output to just 10 punches thrown per round, then he would have a chance of winning a decision if the referee doesn’t penalize him in each round for his holding.

I happen to disagree with Sanchez about his opinion of Brook coming out and wanting to make a fight of it. I mean, I do think Brook will pick spots to try and trade with Golovkin to see if he can get the better of him with his superior hand speed, but I don’t expect him to continue to slug with him. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle will have been preaching to him for weeks now that he’s got to frustrate GGG by moving, holding and using the old ‘punch and grab’ technique that we’ve seen from spoiler-type fighters over the years. I’m quite sure that Ingle will have preached to Brook avoid getting into any real fire fights with Golovkin in this fight. It’s going to be all spoiling from Brook, believe me. He’s not going to want to fight Golovkin. He’s going to be looking to slow the fight to a crawl and hope that the judges give him the decision, albeit a controversial one.

Here are the tactics that we will be sure to see from Brook:

Frequent holding – This is going to be the main staple of Brook’s game tonight. I see him holding/cliching a minimum of 10 times per round with a maximum of 20. It will depend largely on whether the referee will be an empty vessel who fails to do his job in policing the excessive clinching by Brook. If the referee is just there in body but not in mind, then I see Brook being able to get away with turning the fight into an UGLY to watch holding affair where he makes himself a part of Goloivkin’s body by attacking himself to him in each round like a giant sea lamprey that won’t let go. Gosh, I hope Brook doesn’t turn into a big sea lamprey in the ring tonight, because it’ll be so awful to watch.

Punch and grab -This a tactic where Brook will throw a punch and land it and immediately grab Golovkin in a hard vice-like clinch to keep him from being able to throw anything back. The harder Golovkin tries to shuck Brook off of him, the harder Brook will likely grip. It’s a tactic that is both frustrating and physically draining to deal with unless the referee is doing his job and penalizing the fighter that is using the ‘punch and grab” technique. This kind of tactic should only be allowed a few times per round, but we often see it being used over and over again by different fighters. Brook used this style against Shawn Porter in their fight in 2014. If you watch the fight, you’ll not that Brook was throwing single shots and falling into an immediate clinch to keep Porter from being able to throw back. The referee that worked the fight failed to address it by disqualifying Brook. The fact that Brook was able to get away with it once against Porter in his toughest fight of his career gives me the impression that we’re going to see it used exclusively tonight by “Special K.” Brook didn’t need to use the ‘punch and grab’ technique in his recent fights against Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin, because those were mediocre fighters with inflated rankings in my view. Brook could have likely beaten them with one hand if he wanted to. He didn’t need to use the punch and grab technique to beat those guys. He only needs to use the style against quality fighters with the power, boxing skills and talent to beat him, which is the case in Brooks fight tonight against Golovkin and in his fight against Porter in 2014. The fact that the ‘punch and grab’ technique style worked for Brook against Porter in the past tells me that he’s going to go back to that style tonight to try and worm his way to an ugly decision.

Moving – This is something we’ll see a lot of too tonight. There’s no way that Brook is going to stand in front of a big puncher like Golovkin, because that would be fatal for hm. Golovkin hits too hard, and has way too much talent for Brook to try and beat him in a traditional fight. As such, we’re almost surely going to be seeing Brook on the move for 12 rounds. I suspect that Brook will stop every once in a while to throw a jab followed by a punch before grabbing Golovkin in a crushing bear-hug that smothers him, making it hard to breath. It’s got to be a tight bear-hug that Brook puts on Golovkin because if it’s loose, then the Kazahstan fighter we’ll be able to shake him loose to throw his big power shots. Brook isn’t going to allow that and neither I his trainer Ingle.

Jabbing – This will be a big part of Brook’s game tonight a well. It’s a relatively safe thing for Brook to do because the chances of Golovkin being able to land anything while being jabbed is low unless he closes the distance quickly. My guess is Brook will have his feet already prepared for reverse gear when he throws his jabs. If Golovkin even looks at Brook wrong, I see him immediately retreating to avoid getting hit.

Throwing only pot shots – I think it goes without saying that we’re only going to be seeing pot shots from Brook tonight against Golovkin, because if he throws more than one punch at a time, the chances of him getting hit increase. Since it only takes one hard shot from Golovkin to stun his opponents, I do not see Brook taking any chances by throwing more than one single shot at a time. Brook will either throw his single shot or the most likely thing he’ll do is throw a single shot and grab Golovkin straightaway to tie him up in a tight clinch. Yeah, it’s going to be dreadfully ugly and boring to see Brook throwing just pot shots, but I don’t think he has enough faith in the ability of his chin to take Golovkin’s big power shots for 12 rounds without dropping for the 10 count.

I see it being really tough for Brook to be able to spoil enough in this fight for him to get the win. Even if Brook stoops to the level of using all these ugly tactics in tonight’s fight, it’s not going to keep him from getting brained by Golovkin in each round. It only takes one big punch from Golovkin to end the fight. If he realizes he’s only able to pry Brook off of him long enough to land 10 punches per round, then he’s going to make sure those punches count by loading up with everything he has in his body to get the KO.