By Scott Gilfoid: For the boxing fans that saw last Saturday’s match between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Kell Brook, they saw Triple G break him down and get a 5th round stoppage in a fight that was clearly controlled by GGG at the O2 Arena in London, England. However, according to Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn, it was Brook who was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
Hearn says that he was told by World Boxing Council president Mauricio Suliaman moments after the fight ended that Brook was ahead on the scorecards. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty shocking news to me, because I saw a different fight than the judges.
I had Golovkin winning round 1, 3, 4 and 5. The only round I gave to Brook was round two. I thought Brook definitely won the 2nd round, but that was his last and only hoorah in the fight.
It’s crazy to think that Brook was ahead in the fight against Golovkin through five rounds, because what rounds could you give Brook besides the 2nd? You couldn’t give him round one, because he was staggered by Golovkin. You couldn’t give Brook rounds three and four, because he was running from Golovkin.
It’s so very weird. Having Brook ahead on the scorecards reminds me of how Saul Canelo Alvarez was ahead of Amir Khan through six rounds last May. I had Khan in control of the fight four rounds to one at the time that he was knocked out in round six.
“Kell stepped up and fought the best,” said his promoter Eddie Hearn. “He was ahead on the scorecards, but at the end of the day his eye socket was gone and was seeing two or three of him. For five or six rounds, I believe he was giving Golovkin a hell of a fight. [World Boxing Council President] Mauricio Suliaman just told me he was ahead on the scorecards. I would have liked to have seen the fight go on, but you can’t let fighters fight with injuries. I think he showed that Golovkin was human. He showed that he can hit him. He gave him great angles, but in the end, his power caught up. He damaged him, and Golovkin is a very, very strong man. This fight was going to go into the deep waters. I know you wanted to see it. Kell Brook will be back. He’s still the IBF welterweight champion of the world. We’ll sit down. There will be some big fights in the future in this country,” said Hearn.
How in the world could the three judges have had Brook ahead of Golovkin at the time of the stoppage? That’s just bizarre. I guess in a parallel universe something like that would make sense, but I can’t figure it out. Brook was taking a beating from Golovkin, and only showing brief spurts of offense in each round. It was Golovkin that was pushing the fight and in the attack mode in rounds one through five.
If you were to have Brook ahead through four rounds, then you would have to ignore the aggression, the harder punches and the cleaner landing shots from Golovkin in order to have him trailing in the fight. Having Brook ahead on the scorecards just shows you how hard it can be for visiting fighters to beat guys fighting in their home countries, because no way do I think Brook should have been ahead in this fight at the time of the stoppage. That’s just senseless to me. If I had eyes closed throughout the fight, then yes, I would have had Brook well ahead at the time of the stoppage. But with eyes opened, Brook was losing the fight from what I could see and losing BADLY. I’m just saying. Brook was in the retreat mode during the five round contest and he shouldn’t have been ahead on the scorecards. That’s sad scoring to me. Brook was losing, period.
It’s interesting that Hearn was trying to tell the crowd at the O2 that Brook was ahead on the scorecards, because it made little sense to me. How could Brook be ahead on the scorecards when he was getting pummeled by Golovkin in every round but the 2nd?
With Hearn choosing to mention that Brook is still the IBF welterweight champion, it suggests to me that he might try and persuade him to go back down to defend his title against the unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) rather than give up his IBF title. Hearn is a wily fox, and he probably realizes that there’s money to be made in a fight between Brook and Spence. The American Spence is seen by many boxing fans as the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the most talented fighter in the welterweight division. Spence’s last fight against Leonard Bundu was seen by over six million viewers last August on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. Spence is clearly in the express lane to becoming a star in the U.S.
If Brook can dehydrate down to 147 to face Spence, he would have a HUGE weight advantage over him after he rehydrates. Personally, I think it would be a bad decision career-wise for Brook, because Spence has major punching power that approaches the kind of power that Golovkin has going for him. I think Spence would break Brook down in the same way by causing some kind of injury to get a stoppage. If Spence didn’t physically break Brook the same way that Golovkin did, then I could see him getting a stoppage with a body shot, because Spence is the best body puncher in the 147lb division in my opinion.
I don’t think Brook could stand up to Spence’s body shots for 12 rounds. Hearn was bragging about Brook showing Golovkin angles in the fight to avoid getting hit by him, but that junk wouldn’t work against Spence, because he would focus on going to the body. Brook wouldn’t be able to avoid the body shots no matter how much he moved his head and gave angles. The body would always be there for Spence to hit unless Brook runs from him. If you look at the start of Brook’s troubles in the 5th round against Golovkin, it started when he was hit by a hard right to the midsection from the Kazakhstan fighter. That punch doubled Brook over, causing him to be defenseless for the next five shots that came from Golovkin, which all landed to the head. Brook was hurt by that body shot, and it took the life out of him for the remainder of the fight. Brook was basically just a punching bag until his trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the white towel of surrender to have referee Marlon Wright stop the contest.
I don’t think that Brook has a future at 154, I really don’t. He’s not going to beat WBO champion Liam Smith, who I rate as a murderous puncher, and he’s not going to beat Erislandy Lara, Jermell Charlo or Jermall Charlo. Those are very, very talented fighters with top rate punching power and excellent hand speed. They’re also very tall fighters that are close to 6-feet in height. Brook isn’t going to beat those guys, and definitely isn’t going to beat Liam Smith. I mean, I don’t expect Smith to have his WBO title after he faces Saul Canelo Alvarez this Saturday night. Caneli isn’t going to hold onto his WBO title for long though. I see him vacating after a while. Brook can certainly fight Smith for the WBO strap if he’s able to come back from his broken eye socket injury, but I think he’ll lose that fight. As such, I see Brook going back down to 147 to try and face Errol Spence Jr, which will be a disaster for Brook in my view.
From this point on, I see Brook’s career sinking. He was only good at welterweight against limited opposition. Heck, Brook only fought one good fighter during his 12-year career at welterweight and that was Shawn Porter. Brook just held Porter for 12 rounds and didn’t do much else. I had Porter winning that fight. But Porter is no longer a champion. If Brook melts back down to 147, he’ll have to face Spence, and I think loses that fight badly. It’s just a bad match-up for Brook, because I think Spence is more talented than GGG. A loss to Spence would have Brook’s career in tatters. He would have to move up to 154, and there’s no weak links for Brook to beat in that weight division. All the champions right now are solid fighters including Liam Smith. These are all very good fighters. Brook would have to be content with just being a mere contender. I don’t know what kind of a future Brook could have as a contender rather than a champion, but my guess is he wouldn’t pack in the crowds like he did before. If Brook moves up to the middleweight division in hopes of carving out a future in that weight class, I see him having the same problems. Golovkin would still be there, and Brook sure as heck isn’t going to beat him, and nor is he going to be able to defeat WBO “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs either. There’s a chance that Brook might beat WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders if he could get a fight against him. However, I suspect that Golovkin will have already fought Saunders and taken his title long before Brook is able to come back from his eye surgery to repair his broken eye socket.