Brook expects Canelo to use his blueprint for GGG

By Boxing News - 09/15/2017 - Comments

Image: Brook expects Canelo to use his blueprint for GGG

By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook sees Saul Canelo Alvarez using his blueprint in how to defeat Gennady “GGG” Golovkin when the two of them fight this weekend in Las Vegas. Brook used an in an out style of attacking Golovkin in their fight on September 10 last year in London, England.

Unfortunately for Brook, his blueprint ultimately was a failure for him, as he was worn down by GGG and stopped in the 5th round. Brook blames the stoppage on him suffering a broken eye socket. It looked more like Brook got hit with a body shot that knocked the fight out of him. Brook stopped throwing punches after Golovkin hit him hard to the body in the 5th. The fight might as well have been stopped right there, because Brook stopped letting his hands go at that point.

As far as the blueprint goes to beat Triple G, Brook would come forward quickly; throw no more than 3 punches, and then dart away to keep Golovkin from landing his big shots. It worked well enough for Brook to have the fight knotted up 2 rounds a piece on two of the judges’ scorecards after 4 rounds, and 3 rounds to 1 in his favor on the third judges’ card.

”There’s boxing at distance, no more than three shots then out, then frustrate him,” said Brook. ”That was the plan, because it wasn’t hard to tell when it was working. I am sure ‘Canelo’ and his team has looked at it, and that’s what I will be looking for them to do,” said Brook.

It’s interesting that Brook is taking credit for creating the blueprint to frustrate Golovkin. If you look back at Golovkin’s fight with Martin Murray in 2015, that’s how he fought Golovkin. Murray would throw a few punches and then take off running around the ring. It was awful to watch, and no way was Murray winning rounds, but he could ‘survive’ until the 11th. Brook taking credit for Murray’s blueprint just seems wrong. Murray created that blueprint first. Brook followed him, using the same blueprint, but getting stopped much faster in his fight.

The blueprint failed to work for Brook, Murray and Danny Jacobs. They all tried the blueprint, and they all lost to Golovkin. The blueprint only works somewhat. It’s not the perfect blueprint. The reason why it doesn’t work is because running from Golovkin makes it impossible to win rounds unless you’ve got judges that score rounds for that kind of thing. Jacobs ruined his only chance of beating Golovkin by using the ‘hit and dash’ blueprint that Brook takes credit for.

If Jacobs had just stood and fought Golovin, he would have had a much better chance of winning. The only time Jacobs was effective in the Golovkin fight was in the second half of the contest when he abandoned the ‘hit and dash’ blueprint and came after him to start throwing some actual leather.

Brook’s blueprint that he takes credit for was a failure for Jacobs, as it was for the guy that designed it in Martin Murray. The only way you’re going to beat Golovkin is to stay in the trenches and go after him the way that Jacobs did. If you can’t do that, then you’re out of luck. No amount of running is going to help you spoil your way to a win over Golovkin, which is what the whole Brook ‘hit and dash’ blueprint is all about. Brook thinks you can beat Golovkin by spoiling for 12 rounds. Personally, I think it’s stupid for Canelo to even try to use that approach. Even if it worked for Canelo, he would be booed out of the ring for running from Golovkin. Canelo is trying to entertain and win boxing fans. He’s not going to do that by using the ‘hit and dash’ blueprint.

I don’t see Murray’s blueprint will work for Canelo to beat Golovkin. Canelo is a short-legged, 5’8” wide body fighter, who moves slow like a ponderous heavyweight. Canelo will never have fast feet, and it would be foolish for him to try and use the ‘hit and dash’ blueprint. Canelo gets red-faced when he does any kind of movement inside the ring.

To ask Canelo to run around the ring each time he this Golovkin with a fast 3-punch combination, it’s useless and a waste of time and energy. If Canelo had great foot speed, and if his stamina was excellent, he might want to try Martin Murray’s ‘hit and dash’ blueprint, but unfortunately he doesn’t have the stamina or the speed of foot to use that style.

”I’ve never been in with anyone with that much power,” said Brook about Golovkin. ”It was weird power as well, hard to explain but it is definitely powerful. Some fighters have a sharp, snappy power, others have that really dense power and his was in the middle. All I can say is that even when he hits you on the arm, you know you’ve been hit. It’s easy looking at it and seeing him throw those weird shots, but until you’re in there and it’s actually happening to you, you can’t really prepare for it,” said Brook.

Brook had the crowd behind him in the Golovkin fight. Whenever Brook would land anything at all, the crowd would magnify it by cheering loudly, making it seem like he was doing more than he was. In contrast, when Golovkin would land a punch, the crowd was deathly silent, not uttering a peep. That was the strange part. Golovkin was clobbering Brook with monstrous shots, and the crowd was silent.

It gave the impression that Brook was doing better than he was. Boxing News 24 had Golovkin winning 3 rounds to 1 going into round 5. Brook won the 2nd round based on an uppercut he nailed Golovkin with that snapped his head back. Brook also hit Golovkin with a 4-punch combination in that round at one point. But the fight was over for all intents and purposes starting in round 3, as Golovkin dropped Brook early in the round with a left hook to the head. The referee ruled it a slip, but it was clearly a knockdown. Brook was shaken after the knockdown, and he started running like crazy.

Brook’s punches became fewer and fewer. At midpoint in the round, Golovkin tagged Brook with a tremendous right hand to the head that echoed throughout the O2 Arena. Brook took the shot, but it seemed to take away what little ambition he had left to try and win the fight. Brook was in a full-scale retreat for the entire round, and for the remainder of the fight. Murray’s ‘hit and dash’ blueprint, that Brook takes credit for, was useless for him. He was doing more dashing than fighting in rounds 3-5. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle might as well have thrown in the towel to have the fight stopped in round 3 instead of waiting until the 5th to have the contest stopped.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to fight Golovkin. The right way is to go after him, back him up, and throw a lot of punches to keep him bottled up the way Jacobs was doing in rounds 7-12. The wrong way is to try and spoil the way Murray and Brook were both doing in their fights with him. They were never going to beat Golovkin by using the ‘hit and dash’ technique, because you can’t win rounds like that. The only thing the judges see is a fighter hitting and literally running, and they’re not going to give a win to a fighter does that against Golovkin. It’s not going to happen.

Canelo would hurt his popularity if he uses that blueprint, because boxing fans in the U.S expect fighters to fight when they see them on PPV. They don’t want to see a bunch of running. That’s why the boxing fans were so angry with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao for their dull fight in 2015. The fans wanted to see entertainment, and instead they saw a lot of running and resting between the 2 aging fighters. It would look really bad for Canelo to run from Golovkin the way that Brook did. Canelo already took heat from the boxing world when he failed to fight hard in his loss to Mayweather in 2013. Canelo can’t hurt his popularity even work by using the spoiling blueprint that Brook is taking credit for creating.