By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion said it himself that Kell Brook lacked the power for the middleweight division after he broke him down and stopped him in the 5th round last Saturday night at the O2 arena in London, England. I believe that Golovkin was telling the truth. The difference between the punching power and the weight of the shots of the two fighters was significant.
Brook could not slow Golovkin down with his shots because he lacked the power on them to do any damage. Brook now says he plans on moving down to the junior middleweight division because he feels like he’ll be able compete against guys at 154. I’m not sure that he can though.
I’ve seen all the top fighters at 154, and I don’t think that Brook has the power, size or the boxing skills to be a major player at junior middleweight. Here are the top fighters at 154: Jermell Charlo, Miguel Cotto, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Demetrius Andrade, Erislandy Lara, Jermall Charlo, Liam Williams and Julian Williams. Most of those guys are big enough and powerful enough to fight at middleweight. These are fighters that rehydrate into their 170s just like Golovkin does, yet they choose to fight at junior middleweight.
There’s not much difference between the power of these guys and Golovkin. They may not hit as hard, but they’re powerful enough to create a lot of problems for a pumped up welterweight like Brook. I would rate Brook well below the power of those fighters.
Heck, I don’t even see Brook as having the power of some of the fringe contenders at junior middleweight like Willie Nelson, Vanes Martirosyan, Jarett Hurd, Michael Soro, Erickson Lubin, Charles Hatley, Gabriel Rosado and Liam Williams. Those guys all gave heavy hands with big frames and are naturally powerful for the junior middleweight class. With the exception of perhaps Lubin, they might be missing the overall talent to win a world title at 154, but they’re all very powerful.
I rate Brook’s power to be close to guys like Austin Trout and Tony Harrison. Those guys aren’t big punchers, and they have to depend more on their boxing skills to get wins. Neither of them is ranked in the top 5 in the division, which kind of gives you an indication of where Brook is heading in the future at junior middleweight.
The way I see it, Brook’s lack of power at the 154lb level will doom him to being just another one of the fringe contenders once he gets found out by one or more of those top names. It might not even take one of the top guys to beat Brook. I could see him getting beaten by some fringe contenders as well. I think Tony Harrison beats him and Trout as well. Terrell Guashua, Hurd and Daquan Arnett would be a nightmare for Brook. I’m just saying. Unless Brook can get back down to 147 to continue campaigning as a welterweight, I think it might be game over for him as a true major player in boxing.
“I promised to bring a big drama show because I know Kell is a huge fighter, a very good fighter – but sorry, he’s not a middleweight,” Golovkin said to Sky Sports after the fight last Saturday. “I know my style. I respect him, he’s good, but not so strong. No, no, he just touched. It’s like training, I stay relaxed, I didn’t feel his power. So many punches, but I didn’t feel.”
I knew it was going to be like this in the fight, because Brook did not look powerful in the clip that I saw of his sparring session with World Boxing Organization junior middleweight champion Liam Smith recently. The difference between the power of the two was pretty significant. Smith was the much harder puncher of the two. I knew then that Brook would have no chance whatsoever against Golovkin.
Even at welterweight, I don’t think Brook is a huge puncher. He’s got decent power for a welterweight, but not the kind of power that we see from fighters like Errol Spence Jr., Andre Berto and Keith Thurman. Those are the real hard punchers at 147. The guys with medium power are fighters like Tim Bradley, Danny Garcia, Robert Guerrero and Jessie Vargas. I see Brook as being comparable to Vargas in power. Yeah, Brook got a lot of knockouts during his career at welterweight, but he was knocking out a lot of guys like Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan, and Frankie Gavin. Brook never knocked out any good welterweights. He only fought one good welterweight in his career in Shawn Porter, and he was never able to hurt him with his shots.
“Thanks to his corner, for his career, for his family. It’s correct, this. Because I feel it was game over,” said Golovkin about Brook.
Yes, it was “game over” for Brook in the 5th. He was using the ropes as a walking cane in that round, and looked like an old man. He wasn’t doing anything other than using the ropes for support as he walked along them and took heavy shots. Brook was not going to make it out of the round whether his trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel or not. Brook was doomed. He was too hurt from the punches to the head, body and from his broken right eye socket for him to make it out of the round.
If I was Brook’s trainer, I would tell him to move back down to 147, because I don’t see a future for him at junior middleweight. Yeah, Brook can scrape up some fights against the top guys in the 154lb division, but he’ll lose to them all. I can’t see him beating any of the top names. The thing is, once Brook starts losing one after another to the top guys at 154, I see is career being over as a major player, which is pretty much where I already see him. It’ll just be academic once Brook starts getting beaten by the top dogs at 154.
If Brook can get a dietician to work with him on his weights, and if he can do enough cardio, I think he can make 147 for the remainder of his career. I think he should. He complains about how hard it is to make 147, but I think he hasn’t exhausted the ways that he can stay in this weight class. If Brook uses a lot of cardio exercises, he’ll be able to stay at 147 for as long as he wishes. I think it’s a much smarter move for Brook, because he’ll at least be a top five guy at 147 for a while. I mean, I don’t see him beating a talent like Errol Spence Jr., but I think he could beat Jessie Vargas, Danny Garcia and Tim Bradley possibly. Thurman would be too fast and powerful for Brook. I think Brook can be a top guy in the welterweight division for the next three to five years if he gets his weight down. But if Brook moves to 154, I see nothing but trouble for him in that weight class, which is why I think he should avoid the division completely. It’s better for Brook to skip past the division rather than going down there and getting beaten or twice, and then having to slink back down to 147 with his career tarnished with the losses a 154.
Ideally, Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle should see for himself that Brook lacks the power in his shots and the size to be a top junior middleweight. That’s what Ingle is there for to tell Brook what he’s capable of. If Ingle can’t see it for himself that Brook lacks the power and size to be a top 154lb fighter, then that’s worrisome. I think it’s painfully obvious that Brook doesn’t have the power or size to tangle with the likes of Liam Smith, Canelo, Cotto, Andrade, Lara, the Charlo brothers or Julian Williams. I think Brook would struggle badly against fringe guys like Tony Harrison and Austin Trout. I doubt he would beat either of those guys. Those are tough fringe guys with better boxing skills than Brook in my view.
“Kell is a very good fighter but eventually they’re going to break down,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez to Sky Sports. “Eventually [Golovkin’s] power and ability to land clean punches is going to take effect.”
Sanchez is right. Brook was going to break down physically sooner or later from the heavy shots he was getting hit with by Golovkin. Even if Brook didn’t suffer the eye injury, he was going to get broken down at some point by GGG. Heck, the fight only made it to the 5th round, and Brook looked hurt, tired, and a broken down man. In the end, Brook didn’t look like a 30-year-old man. He looked like someone in his 40s to me. He was using the ropes as support and literally couldn’t stand in the center of the ring. I think his legs were tired from holding up all that extra weight that he put on, so he went to the ropes the way that aging fighters do. Brook is only 30, but he looked and fought like a guy in his 40s.