By Scott Gilfoid: Fresh off his defeat to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Kell Brook says he would like to now fight newly crowned WBO junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Brook got a taste of what it’s like in being in a huge fight with Golovkin, and now he wants another big fight against Canelo.
A fight of that nature would have to take place in 2017, being that Canelo can’t sit around waiting for Brook’s broken right eye socket to heal. Canelo needs an opponent to be selected SOON for his December 10 fight on HBO pay-per-view. It won’t do Canelo any good if he’s waiting for Brook to lick his wounds for four or more months before he can fight again.
Brook is scheduled to have eye surgery this Friday to have them repair his damaged eye. It’s a delicate operation and all you can do is hope that Brook can come back from it to resume his boxing career.
Brook is still uncertain whether he should give up on the 147lb division or not. Brook talks about wanting to move to 154 for a fight against Canelo, but at the same time, he still wants to see if he can get back down to 147, because he’s a champion in that weight class. It makes sense for Brook to try and stay at 147, considering that his power is better in that weight class and he has an advantage in size over most of the guys. The best fighters are 154 are basically middleweights, all of them. Brook is going to be out of his class against the taller, heavier, faster and stronger fighters like Erislandy Lara, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams and Demetrius Andrade. Those guys are all bigger than Golovkin and with better hand speed and arguably superior athletic skills. I think Brook would flounder against all of them, and then wind up having to move back down to 147 anyway unless he’s good with being a contender and not a champion the remainder of his career.
“I’d love that fight with Canelo. I just want to be in those big fights. I had a taste with the Golovkin fight and the attention around it is exciting for a fighter to be in,” said Brook to skysports.com. “I need to get back training and see if I could make 147lbs healthily – that’s also a possibility because I’m a world champion at 147lbs.”
So there it is. Brook wants the Canelo fight, and he’s also thinking of trying to get back down to 147. Well, Brook is going to need to wait awhile before he can fight Canelo, and I’m not sure if the interest from the Mexican star is mutual in making that fight. I mean, why would Canelo want to fight a guy that was just stopped by Golovkin? Where’s the victory in facing a guy that was just stopped? I don’t see how Canelo comes out ahead by fighting Brook. It’s a no win situation for Canelo, because Brook would be able to see his stock rise even if he gets beaten.
As long as Brook has some moments in the fight like he did with Golovkin, he can gain tell the boxing media and fans that he was ahead at during a portion of the fight or at the time of the stoppage. That’s what Brook is doing now after his loss to Golovkin. Instead of talking about how Golovkin broke him down quickly once he started attacking him hard in the 4th, Brook has been talking about how he was ahead when the fight was halted. Canelo has nothing to gain from fighting someone like this, because it’s another mismatch in size. It’s actually more of a size mismatch for Canelo to be fighting Brook because he’s heavier than Golovkin. If Canelo rehydrates to 175 or the 180s, Brook is going to look someone that wondered into the wrong ring on the night. Brook doesn’t have the punching power to compete against Canelo. About the only thing Brook can do is throw an odd pot shot here and there in between running around the ring. If Brook can get the fight staged in the UK, then his boxing fans will cheer like mad each time he lands anything. The judges might then score rounds for Brook like they were with him in the Golovkin fight.
I only had Brook winning the 2nd round against Golovkin, but to listen to the way the fans were screaming each time Brook landed, you’d think he blanked Golovkin by winning all the rounds, including the 5th. I don’t think Brook will go the distance with Canelo. I see him getting broken down again and his trainer Dominic Ingle throwing in the towel as soon as he sees his fighter in distress. For Brook’s sake, I think Ingle needs to resist the urge to toss in the towel in his next fight, because I think it might hurt Brook’s career if Ingle is throwing in the towel left and right. I mean, you’ve got to let your fighter take a knee and quit or go out on his shield. If Ingle is going to keep tossing in the towel each time Brook steps it up against good opponents, I think it might cause boxing fans not to want to come see his fights. They’ll be looking around for Ingle, wondering when he’s going to toss in the white towel of surrender as soon as Brook starts getting the worst of it.
If Brook can’t get the fight against Canelo, then he needs to move back down to 147 and defend his IBF title against Errol Spence Jr. This would be the heroic thing for Brook to do. He stands a better chance against Spence than he would against Canelo. Of course, isn’t going to be as good. If Brook can get the Canelo fight in May, then so be it. You’ve got to take it. But if it looks like there won’t be a Canelo fight in the first quarter of 2017, then Brook should melt down and face Spence. I think he could do it, and it would be a big fight.
Brook thinks he would have beaten Golovkin if not for the injury.
“I was in the fight, up on the scorecards and it was my time to take the shot from him and coming back were mine,” said Brook.” I think it would have been a completely different fight if my eye hadn’t have gone. I’m gutted because I could’ve shocked the world that night.’
Nah, Brook wouldn’t have beaten Golovkin even without any injuries. I think there would have been some injuries occurring in other parts of Brook’s body if he had made it out of the 5th, because Golovkin was hitting him so hard. Besides, the punch that hurt Brook in the 5th round was a right to the body from Golovkin. The last time I checked, Brook wasn’t talking about having a rib injury after the fight. I just think Brook couldn’t handle Golovkin’s body punching, and that in turn stopped him from throwing shots.