Pacquiao says Golovkin-Brook convinced him to continue career

By Boxing News - 11/03/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: The Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Kell Brook fight from last September was the reason why former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao decided to come out of retirement and resume his boxing career. Pacquiao says he normally doesn’t watch fights, but in this case he decided to see the Golovkin-Brook contest.

Pacquiao says he saw things from that fight that he felt that the 30-year-old Brook should have been doing for him to have a chance against the hard hitting Triple G. Pacquiao specifically felt that Brook should have countered more rather than trying to slug with Golovkin.

In the end, Golovkin hurt Brook with a body shot in the 5th round that caused him to drop his hands and stop throwing punches. The last 20 seconds of the fight was all Golovkin teeing off on Brook, who was trying his best to make him miss but doing a poor job of it. Seeing that his fighter was taking one-sided punishment and no longer fighting back in round five, Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the white towel of surrender. The fight was then stopped. It was the perfect stoppage, because Brook was staggering as he walked back to his corner after the stoppage. He was clearly ready to be knocked out at the time that his trainer Ingle had the fight stopped.

Pacquiao is just days away from his 67th fight against Jessie Vargas as he attempts to regain the WBO welterweight title with a win over the American champion on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao said this to the Dailymail about the Golovkin vs. Brook fight:

“I happened to see Triple G fighting Brook and suddenly I feel lonely. Sad,” said Pacquiao. “I am thinking I know what Brook should be doing to have a chance. Countering instead of taking on a big hitter. I find myself thinking that I’m no longer doing the sport I love. I know I still have the speed, the power and the hunger and I am asking myself: ‘why didn’t I continue?’

I hate to say it, but Brook had no chance against Golovkin, period. It wouldn’t have mattered if Brook had countered Golovkin like Pacquiao says because countering only works when your opponent isn’t going to keep throwing punches at you. I mean, so what if Brook countered Golovkin with a shot. Golovkin would have just kept hitting him with shot after shot.

Yeah, Brook could have kept countering Golovkin, but the fight would have had the same ending. Countering works when you’ve got a guy that you can hurt with your shots. Brook couldn’t hurt Golovkin. The countering was useless, because Golovkin wasn’t going to stop throwing punches. If it had been Pacquiao inside the ring with Golovkin on the night, he could have countered Golovkin as much as he wanted, but he would have kept getting hit back. If Brook would have countered Golovkin like Pacquiao, he would have had to keep countering. Before long, the two would have been throwing shots at each other in an old fashioned war. I think Brook would have lasted maybe half of one round fighting like that against Golovkin. If you get caught in a countering contest with Golovkin, you’re going to get your head taken off. The only thing Brook could do in the fight was run, which is what he did. Brook survived to the 5th round because of his running, not because of his fighting. He ran to survive. It was a survival oriented fight for Brook. I’m just saying. There’s nothing heroic in that.

I don’t think Pacquiao would have to stand up to Golovkin’s shots any longer than Brook did unless he ran from him. That would have been sad to see, because I’ve never seen Pacquiao run from an opponent before except after he was hurt by Antonio Margarito in their fight in 2010. Margarito hurt Pacquiao with a body shot in the second half of the fight that caused him to get on his bike for the remainder of the fight.

“I don’t normally watch other fights. But for some reason I did this time,” said Pacquiao. “Golovkin is bigger, stronger. He is not only a powerful puncher but he is heavy handed. There is a difference. A heavy-handed opponent can hurt even if he doesn’t land clean. However they hit you, it makes you think.”

Well, if you saw the Golovkin vs. Brook fight, you’ll have noticed that the only round in which Brook tried to fight him was in the 2nd. Even in that round, he only briefly came forward trying to exchange. Much of the round was Golovkin chasing Brook around. Brook got brave late in the round and landed an uppercut.

The problem is Golovkin nailed him with a scorching right hand to the head in the same round that was far harder than the uppercut that Brook landed. The difference was the pro-Brook crowd didn’t cheer loudly after Golovkin landed his huge right hand the way they did after Brook connected with a weaker uppercut. Golovkin’s right hand, although much harder, was forgotten about. The only thing boxing fans talked about afterwards was the uppercut that Brook landed in the 2nd. The fans didn’t talk about the left hook from Golovkin in the 1st round that staggered Brook and broke his right eye socket. The fans didn’t talk about the right hand that Golovkin landed to the head of Brook in the 2nd. The fans didn’t talk about the blown knockdown call in round 3 in which Golovkin dropped Brook with a left hook to the head that bowled him over and the referee ruled it a slip. The fans didn’t talk about how Golovkin hurt Brook with a right to the body in round 5 that caused him to stop throwing punches for the remainder of the fight.

“I’m fighting this fight in my mind. And I’m hooked, again. In that moment my decision to come back is made,” said Pacquiao.

If Pacquiao is hooked on boxing from watching the Golovkin vs. Brook fight, then he needs to have his promoter Bob Arum setup a fight between him and Golovkin for early 2017. I mean, if Pacquiao really believes that countering what would have made the difference for Brook against Golovkin, then he can test that theory of his by fighting Golovkin and trying it out. If it works, Pacquiao will be crowned the new middleweight champion. The news of a Pacquiao win over Golovkin would be HUGE to the boxing world.

Pacquiao’s legacy would be cemented with a victory over Triple G. Of course, if Pacquiao is wrong about countering making a difference against Golovkin, then you would expect to see him getting flattened at some point in the fight just like he was in his 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. I like Pacquiao a lot as a fighter, but I think he’s kidding himself if he thinks countering would work against Golovkin. It wouldn’t.

Golovkin would just keep throwing punches, and you’d either have to run from him or stand and try and counter his countering shots. It would be just two fighters throwing shots back and forth at each other. The guy with the better power, Golovkin, would win that war with ease. I think Pacquiao would last one round against Golovkin if he didn’t run for the hills like Brook did.

The reality is Brook ran from Golovkin for five rounds. There was poor scoring of the contest by the three judges that worked the fight in my opinion, because one of them had Brook winning three rounds to one at the time of the stoppage. The other two had it even at two rounds a piece. This means that one of the judges clearly gave Brook the 1st round in which he was badly hurt. The same judge gave Brook round 3, when he started to take heavy punishment. I would have loved to have seen what the scores were from the three judges for the 5th round if the fight hadn’t been stopped. The 5th round was a total route. I’d like to think the judges would have given Golovkin that round, but I’m not sure that they would have. How did Brook win the 1st round when he was staggering like a drunk after getting hurt by a left hook? How did Brook win the 3rd round when he was bowled over by a left hook to the head from Golovkin, and the referee blew the call? It was sad scoring of the fight in my view.

Instead of Pacquiao talking about the Golovkin-Brook fight, he needs to be worrying about his fight this Saturday night against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs), because he might lose that fight. In fact, I think Pacquiao will lose the fight. That’s my prediction. The Pacquiao vs. Vargas fight will be taking place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be televised on Top Rank pay-per-view. I don’t expect the fight to produce many pay-per-view buys. Honestly, I’d be surprised if it even breaks 400,000 buys. It’s just not a compelling match-up. Someone from Top Rank blew it when they came up with the brilliant idea of matching Pacquiao against Vargas instead of a popular fighter.